work breakdown structure meaning

Since the planned outcomes are the desired ends of the project, they form a relatively stable set of categories in which the costs of the planned actions needed to achieve them can be collected. If the answer is “no”, the WBS is done. A WBS is also effectively done when it is time-phased. Always express Work Breakdown Structure activities at the lowest levels of granularity in verb form. You’ll always work towards delivery. Project management isn’t easy. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Haugan, Gregory T., Effective Work Breakdown Structures, pp7-8, DOD and NASA Guide, PERT/COST System Design, June 1962, Haugan, Gregory T., The Work Breakdown Structure in Government Contracting, Management Concepts, 2003, MIL-STD-881C, Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items, 3 October 2011, ¶4.3, MIL-STD-881C, Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items, 3 October 2011 Appendix A, ¶A.3, MIL-STD-881C, Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items, 3 October 2011, ¶3.1.4, MIL-STD-881C, Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items, 3 October 2011, ¶1.4.1, MIL-STD-881C, Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items, 3 October 2011, ¶2.2.4.2, MIL-STD-881C, Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items, 3 October 2011, ¶Fig.3-6, MIL-STD-881C, Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items, 3 October 2011, ¶Fig.3-1, MIL-STD-881C, Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items, 3 October 2011, ¶Appendix E, "Glossary of Defense Acquisition Acronyms and Terms: Contract Work Breakdown Structure (CWBS)", Earned Value Management Tutorial Module 2: Work Breakdown Structure, Office of Science, Tools & Resources for Project Management, Fleming, Quentin W., Joel M. Koppelman "Earned Value Project Management" CROSSTALK: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering July 1998, p 20, Study of Methods for Evaluation of the PERT/Cost Management System, Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items, how to create work breakdown structure WBS using standard Division of work, EverySpec.Com copies of MIL-HDBK-881 versions, Defense Acquisition University ACQ101 Summary for Work Breakdown Structures, NASA Work Breakdown Structure Handbook, NASA/SP-2010-3404, January 2010, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Work_breakdown_structure&oldid=987066507, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Information Systems/Defense Business Systems, The first is the "80 hour rule" which means that no single activity or group of activities at the, The second rule of thumb is that no activity or group of activities at the. It’s a hierarchy of tasks that represents the project team’s understanding of the composition of work, and of the size, cost, and duration of each component or task. [7] While the term "work breakdown structure" was not used, this first implementation of PERT did organize the tasks into product-oriented categories. Figure 1 – Deliverable Based Work Breakdown Structure. Adaptable—sufficiently flexible so the addition/elimination of work scope can be readily accommodated in the WBS framework. WBS is a hierarchical and incremental decomposition of the project into phases, deliverables and work packages. There are several heuristics or "rules of thumb" used when determining the appropriate duration of an activity or group of activities necessary to produce a specific deliverable defined by the WBS. Copyright ©2020 Workbreakdownstructure.com. That graphic can be a flowchart, a table, an outline, or anything else that visually represents everything within a hierarchy. Using a work breakdown structure delivers numerous benefits, including: A work breakdown structure is a helpful method for managing the challenges that accompany large-scale enterprise projects and enjoying successful outcomes. A good WBS is simply one that makes the project more manageable. Independent—minimum interface with or dependence on other ongoing elements (i.e., assignable to a single control account, and clearly distinguishable from other work packages). Having a structured approach makes it easier to control the project. It is the structure that organizes a project’s deliverables into separate identified elements. All rights reserved. @2020 by Visual Paradigm. Analyze the documents and identify the deliverables. A work-breakdown structure (WBS)[2] in project management and systems engineering, is a deliverable-oriented breakdown of a project into smaller components. [10] In 1968, the DoD issued "Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items" (MIL-STD-881), a military standard requiring the use of work breakdown structures across the DoD.[11]. All rights reserved. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide provides an overview of the WBS concept, while the "Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures" is comparable to the DoD standard, but is intended for more general application.[13]. It is a tree structure, which shows a subdivision of effort required to achieve an objective; for example a program, project, and contract. A WBS is a brief description of the work using nouns and adjectives, not verbs. Exterior Walls is done after Foundation and Roof is done after the walls are put up. The components that happen first in the project should come first in the WBS structure. [4] In a project or contract, the WBS is developed by starting with the end objective and successively subdividing it into manageable components in terms of size, duration, and responsibility (e.g., systems, subsystems, components, tasks, subtasks, and work packages) which include all steps necessary to achieve the objective. SAP Trademark(s) is/are the trademark(s) or registered trademark(s) of SAP SE in Germany. A control account is a charge number that someone would use to identify the work that they are supposed to be doing. It typically begins with the project sponsor, and with all key stakeholders included. As mentioned many times in this article, it defines the work in the Work Breakdown Structure. “Primary Structure” could probably deal with a lot of things, so it should contain another couple of levels describing the elements that it consists of. Work Breakdown Structure Definition Ask the question, would any additional decomposition make the project more manageable? Level 1 Elements are summary deliverable descriptions that must capture 100% of the project scope. Export or enter the Work Breakdown Structure into a. Microsoft and MS Project are the registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation. The best way to adhere to the 100% rule is to define WBS elements in terms of outcomes or results, not actions. CISSP® is a registered mark of The International Information Systems Security Certification May 23, 2001. The first two levels of the WBS (the root node and Level 2) define a set of planned outcomes that collectively and exclusively represent 100% of the project scope. The WBS stands for Work Breakdown Structure. [19], A practical example of the WBS coding scheme is[20], The lowest element in a tree structure, a terminal element is one that is not further subdivided.