Create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

00:01 This module looks at the create WBS process from the PMBOK guide.

00:08 It's extremely important that you pay particular attention to the WBS or work breakdown structure.

00:14 It's often regarded as the absolute backbone of project management because without it, we can't do good time and cost estimates.

00:23 And that's why there's such a high ranking with exam importance in terms of difficulty.

00:27 There's a medium level of difficulty because there are some things we're going to introduce you to which you may not currently do or even be aware are capable of doing in the profession of project management.

00:38 And the same applies for memorization.

00:41 There are some new concepts we're going to introduce you to here as well.

00:44 But do please pay particular attention to the creation of the WBS and understanding the importance of the WBS in project management and also for the exam? The Create WBS process is part of the project scope management knowledge area, and it is the final of four planning processes in this particular knowledge area.

01:09 The first planning process plan, Scope Management, gave us our Scope Management Plan, which provides guidance on all the rest of our scope management activities.

01:18 The Click Requirements Process gave us our requirements, documentation and our requirements traceability matrix.

01:25 We then used that information to define both our project and product scope with a defined scope process.

01:33 So the creation of the WBS is really the culmination of those planning processes. There are also two monitoring and control processes in the scope management knowledge area, and they are the validate scope process and the control scope process.

01:49 The domain task that the create WBS process helps you to understand better is Planning Task 2, which is develop a scope management plan based on the approved project scope and using scope management techniques in order to define, maintain and manage the scope of the project.

02:06 So it's a fairly big task.

02:09 The single task takes us through those four planning processes in the scope management knowledge area.

02:15 This task takes us through the plan scope management, the click requirements, defined scope and create WBS processes all in this one domain task. The key themes of the create WBS process are.

02:33 What we're going to do now is we're going to take our project scope statement and we're going to break it down to work package level with a process of decomposition.

02:42 With that, we're going to create our work breakdown structure or WBS.

02:48 And The WBS is seen as the backbone for project management because it's absolutely essential to have one.

02:54 Without it, we can't do accurate estimating of cost and time and the people or resources we need on the project.

03:01 Remember that because the work breakdown structure is a graphical representation of the project scope.

03:08 If it's not in the WBS, it's not part of the project.

03:14 The scope baseline is the scope statement, plus the WBS plus the WBS dictionary, all three of those components joined to give us our scope baseline, and with that scope baseline, we can then measure what is actually going on and see if there's a variance between what we expect to go on with the scope baseline and what is actually going on.

03:37 So remember, the WBS is critical to project success.

03:41 In fact, so critical if you get a question in the exam, which presents a scenario which indicates you do not have a WBS and ask you what you should do next.

03:53 The correct answer is stop and complete a WBS before proceeding. The inputs that you may find useful in the creation of your work breakdown structure or WBS include.

04:09 The scope management plan.

04:12 This is the plan that provides the guidance on all of our scope management activities, including the creation of the WBS, so obviously we will want to refer to that in the development of our WBS.

04:25 The project scope statement is an essential input here, because the WBS is a graphical representation of our project scope statement.

04:33 So we need it.

04:35 Now keep in mind that the creation of our WB is can be an iterative process as well, reflecting the iterative development of the project scope statement.

04:44 We may also want our requirements documentation to double check that our WBS captures all of the agreed requirements for the project.

04:55 Other useful inputs include relevant and appropriate enterprise, environmental factors and organizational processes such as our project management methodology and blank WBS templates.

05:11 With these inputs, we can apply the following tools and techniques to end up producing our work breakdown structure.

05:18 The most important tool technique that we can use is simply decomposition, and this is simply the process of taking a total project scope and breaking it down into its component parts.

05:31 And what we are going to do with the process of decomposition is take our entire project scope. Break it down into deliverables, sub deliverables and then down into work package level. And that's where we'll stop for the purposes of the work breakdown structure. The other tool and technique we can use as expert judgment, obviously as a project manager, you are an expert in the creation of WBS Your Project. Team members who will do the work in the WBS should also be consulted as experts on the WBS.

06:01 So let's take a close look at some of these elements decomposition.

06:06 Decomposition is a technique that involves breaking down elements of the project scope statement into their component parts for the WBS.

06:15 We only go as low as the work package level.

06:19 When we come to look at our project schedule, we can go lower to activity level.

06:25 So for the WBS will start at deliverable level, then come down to sub deliverable level, then down to work package level and once again when we come to develop, the project schedule will go lower than that down to activity level.

06:38 But right now, for the creation of the WBS work, package level is as low as we go.

06:46 Here's an example of a work breakdown structure.

06:49 Here at the top level, we've got the new house, we've given it a number 1.0. We come down to the deliverable levels, the sub deliverable levels and finally down to work package levels.

07:03 Below this, we would find activity levels down there.

07:07 Now, just to note, when preparing a work breakdown structure, each of those nodes, that's those boxes with brief informationen, it also has a number assigned to it. We'll talk more about this shortly in terms of the configuration management system, but each one of those numbers can link back to our cost accounting system so that we can accurately see where we're spending our money on the project.

07:33 Defining the work package can be a bit of a mystery.

07:37 But here's some easy tips to help you determine whether it's a work package, a deliverable or an activity.

07:43 First up, a work package cannot easily be decomposed any further.

07:48 Decomposing at any further takes a lot more effort than it's worth.

07:52 But it's small enough to be reliably estimated for time and small enough to be reliably estimated for cost.

08:00 Often it can also be assigned to a single person to complete the work.

08:06 So while there is no absolutely clear definition of the work package, these should give you some guidance.

08:12 Remember, below the work package is the activity level and will need those activities to produce a great project schedule in a later module.

08:22 The outputs from the create WBS process are our scope baseline. Now the baseline is absolutely essential.

08:31 It's one of three baselines in project management, the other two being cost and time and occasionally people out of third in there the quality management one. But the scope baseline is our forecast of what we expect to happen with our project scope.

08:48 And obviously when we come to monitoring and controlling our project scope will want to know what we thought was going to happen so we can compare it against what is actually happening. And that's the importance of our scope baseline.

09:00 Now the scope baseline is made up of three distinct and separate elements.

09:04 They are our scope statement, our work breakdown, structure and work breakdown structure dictionary.

09:11 The other outputs that we may have a project document updates.

09:15 As a result of creating our WBS, we may wish to update other assets that we have things like our WBS template or our processes that guide us on how we prepare our WBS.

09:30 So let's take a closer look at work breakdown structures.

09:34 First up, remember they are based on project deliverables.

09:38 They are built from the top down.

09:40 We use the tool and technique of decomposition to prepare them.

09:45 They are the total representation of the project scope.

09:48 The team doing the work should always help put the WBS together.

09:53 And remember, most importantly, no work breakdown structure means no project. So if you get a question in the exam, which indicates that you're completing a project without a WBS, well, the answer is stop the project and complete the WBS. The thing about the exam is often they'll paint scenarios of certain things that you don't have.

10:14 Maybe you don't have a risk register or a communications plan or quality assurance plan. The answer in those instances is often will keep going with the project and develop one of those things as fast as you can.

10:28 When it comes to the WBS, though, the answer is always stop the project and prepare a WBS. The other element of project management, where you would also stop a project if it didn't exist is, of course, the project charter.

10:41 So you can see the WBS is just as important as the Project Charter in ensuring that you have a successful project.

10:49 Here's some other examples of WBS you can break a WBS is down in numerous ways. So here's a very generic example, which breaks a project down into phases. It also breaks it down into deliverables, also subprojects as well.

11:04 So there's many ways to graphically show how your WBS is breaks down the scope of your project.

11:10 Once again, you can see each of the nodes has a unique identifying number as part of our configuration management system, and each of those numbers would ideally link back to our cost accounting system.

11:24 Here's another example of a work breakdown structure, this time for a generic aircraft system..

11:30 Here we've broken down all the deliverables and sub-deliverables down to work package level, and once again they've each got an identifying number on the node.

11:40 This is where we often see the WB is represented, though not many of us would ever see the WBS represented graphically as that breakdown structure. We usually tend to see the WBS is represented in the left hand side of a chart like this, a typical Gantt-Chart.

11:59 And there you can see the indents of each of the elements of the WBS is representing the success of the levels.

12:07 Now, out of curiosity, the work breakdown structure is one of four breakdown structures in the PMBOK guide.

12:15 Remember, the WBS work breakdown structure.

12:18 The other three are the resource breakdown structure, the risk breakdown structure and the organizational breakdown structure.

12:27 And what they all have in common is they all take a higher level concept and break it down into its component parts.

12:34 Now, I've mentioned a couple of times the configuration management system here in The WB, yes, it's represented by each of the numbers on the nodes in the WBS, and it's a unique number given to it.

12:47 This is part of our overall configuration management system, which actually takes many forms. But what it does do is enable us to track and surveil different parts of our project.

13:00 Other examples of our configuration management system include version and status control on documents.

13:07 For example, this is a draft document.

13:09 This one's confidential.

13:11 This one's for construction.

13:13 Version control on software, are you using version 1.0 or version one point two? The numbering of parts were materials needed for your project to make sure you're using the right part at the right time.

13:27 Another example is giving each change request on your change.

13:30 Register a unique number so you can track it.

13:34 So those are the elements of your configuration management system.

13:38 The other element that we want, apart from our work breakdown structure as our work breakdown structure dictionary.

13:46 The work breakdown structure dictionary is a document that provides more detail about each of the nodes on the WBS, as we've already seen by the examples of the WBS I've given you, we can put onto each node a unique identifier number as part of our configuration management system, and we can put a brief description of the work to be done.

14:08 The WBS Dictionary provides additional information about each of those nodes on our WBS.

14:16 So, for example, we may have a node on our WBS that looks similar to this. Here we have a node rather typical node, and you can see that it has some summary information about this particular plumbing task. We can see it's got its unique identifier one point three point two point one, and it relates to putting plumbing into a house.

14:37 We can also see a summary of the cost, the duration and the amount of people needed to do the work.

14:45 That's what we would say on a normal WBS node.

14:48 However, the WBS dictionary provides a whole lot more information, and here you could see if we did have a WBS dictionary, it would refer to this node like this. 1.3.2.1 is the plumbing work, and this work includes all of the internal work to provide water plumbing throughout the house.

15:06 And it excludes remember in our scope, we've got to put what we're not going to do as well. It excludes any work related to provision of gas reticulation.

15:15 It also excludes any work related to the provision of external irrigation.

15:20 The cost for the work is estimated at thirteen point five thousand dollars, based upon the contract provided on the 13th of January 2014.

15:28 The estimate was completed using parametric estimating expert judgment and published estimating data and is valid for three months.

15:36 The work is forecast to take six days to complete, and it is assumed that the work will be completed without interruptions and that two plumbers will be available the whole time so you can see there the simple node of the WBS provides summary information. The WBS dictionary provides a whole lot more detailed information. So the scope baseline are those three things together, our scope baseline is our agreed and approved scope statement that includes what we are going to do and also what we're not going to do.

16:09 Add to that our work breakdown structure and add to that our work breakdown structure dictionary.

16:15 Those three elements make up our project scope baseline.

16:20 And once again, remember we need the scope baseline so that when we come to check if we're providing the scope we agreed to, we compare what we're actually doing to what our baseline says we think we should be doing.

16:34 And once again, if there's variance between those two, we act to make sure that there's not. So in summary, the create WBS or work breakdown structure process, it takes the project scope statement and breaks it down into its component parts from deliverable to sub deliverable to work package level using the decomposition tool.

16:59 We use the WBS to represent all the deliverables, sub deliverables and work packages on our project.

17:05 And remember, the scope baseline is our scope statement and The WBS and The WBS is dictionary.

17:12 Perhaps most importantly, do remember you must have a WBS for your project. No, WBS means no project.

17:21 This has been an overview of the create WBS process from the PMBOK guide.