With regards to managing Waterfall tasks, one of the vital vital first steps is figuring out scope—what’s in and what’s out for the venture. This important info is usually outlined in a venture scope assertion that names the venture’s main deliverables and exclusions. A well-crafted venture assertion could seem enough to ascertain the scope—and it may be. But I can attest to the unbelievable worth of going one step additional and creating a piece breakdown construction (WBS). It’s a step that’s too usually skipped.
The WBS is a visible venture administration instrument that does precisely what the title implies: subdivides the product and corresponding tasks into distinct increments of labor. As a result of our brains wish to work visually, the WBS turns into an efficient means for the crew to conceptualize its work.
Typically talking, scope is pushed by necessities elicited from the shopper or sponsor. A sponsor could strategy a venture supervisor with the preliminary parameters for a new product, equivalent to a line of laptops that the corporate will promote in North America. From there, the venture supervisor or enterprise analyst derives a sequence of necessities, asking questions like, “What colours will the laptops be?” “What’s the arduous drive’s imply time between failures?” “What number of USB ports are wanted?” It’s vital to do not forget that, on this context, the scope consists of something contributing to the venture’s consequence. This implies not solely product scope (the options and features of the laptop computer) but in addition venture scope (the work required to ship these outcomes). The venture scope may entail duties like lining up manufacturing for the laptop computer or allocating assets for venture administration.
Exclusions are essential to report within the scope assertion in order that later nobody asks one thing like, “Why aren’t we delivery to the UK?” As soon as authorised, this scope baseline helps stop scope creep, which happens when somebody provides extra work with out contemplating its affect on schedule, prices, dangers, and assets. Any crew member can examine the scope assertion and see that every one the decision-makers signed off on which markets to prioritize, though in my expertise, many individuals by no means really learn the scope assertion.
That’s the place the WBS is available in. When the crew invests the time to develop a WBS collectively, it gives a possibility for everybody to visualise and interpret the whole thing of the scope—what’s in and what’s out—together with associated points equivalent to budgets and timelines. As such, I like to think about the WBS as a venture’s Rosetta stone.
What Is a Work Breakdown Construction?
The WBS was developed by the US Division of Protection within the Fifties and remains to be generally utilized by authorities groups and contractors, provided that venture outcomes in these contexts are sometimes decided on the outset. The WBS may also be beneficial in different conditions the place Waterfall is required, which is extra widespread than many venture professionals could understand. Regardless of the ascendancy of Agile methodologies, which don’t embody the WBS as a part of the usual toolkit, 39% of data expertise tasks nonetheless make use of Waterfall, in line with the Undertaking Administration Institute (PMI). In different industries, the chances are even increased.
The WBS breaks the venture scope into progressively smaller increments. This hierarchical rendering can seem in tabular or checklist codecs, however the commonest (and helpful) format resembles a household tree, with associated work grouped on totally different branches.
The primary stage of the WBS identifies the venture. The second stage divides the venture into phases, deliverables, or features. The selection relies upon solely on crew preferences, however I choose phases as a result of they extra readily align with Waterfall’s sequenced strategy. The following layers are then subdivided till reaching an increment known as a work bundle. Typically, work packages require not more than two weeks (80 hours) to finish, however that’s not inviolate. In giant authorities or aerospace tasks, for instance, a piece bundle could take a number of hundred hours. I’ve not often seen a WBS drill down greater than 4 or 5 ranges. By then, the crew ought to have enough info to know what work must be carried out.
Generally a WBS will incorporate a specialised numbering scheme that echoes the hierarchical breakdown. Essentially the most primary kind assigns a quantity to every merchandise within the second stage of the WBS (e.g., 1, 2, 3). Subsequent layers in every column are additional divided with decimal factors (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 1.3; 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3). In my expertise, groups can obtain the planning advantages of the WBS with out the numbering scheme, however in authorities tasks, it’s sometimes a requirement.
It’s essential to notice that even when a crew organizes a WBS in line with phases or features within the second layer, the WBS remains to be a “what” doc, not a “who” or “when” doc. It ought to seize the whole thing of the work that should happen (usually known as the 100% rule) however not who does it or when. Nonetheless, as soon as the crew has created a WBS to outline what work should happen, everybody can extra simply discuss these associated considerations.
So the place does the Rosetta stone a part of this are available in? The WBS is a visible reference that permits crew members to align on a shared understanding of product and venture scope. It additionally helps the crew start to make sense of different points, like prices, dangers, assets, and schedules. As PMI eloquently places it in its Apply Commonplace for Work Breakdown Buildings (a wonderful useful resource for anybody who desires to grasp the small print of this instrument): “The WBS creates a standard language amongst all venture stakeholders, together with venture administration and subject-matter features.” In my expertise, that is undoubtedly the case.
The best way to Create a Work Breakdown Construction
Ideally, WBS planning shouldn’t be a solitary exercise {that a} venture supervisor undertakes alone. It’s higher to develop the WBS with representatives of all of the groups concerned. This collaborative strategy is how the widespread language comes into being. Relying on the dimensions of the venture, one WBS could also be sufficient, though in some circumstances, every crew could wish to make its personal WBS.
As a marketing consultant, I’ve led venture kickoff occasions for quite a few organizations, together with world pharmaceutical corporations, for which I co-facilitated intensive two-day working periods to plan new drug growth tasks. The drug growth course of can take 10 to fifteen years, however the scope is outlined firstly. Stakeholders would attend from far-flung corners of the globe to fulfill and higher perceive the product they might finally be producing. When carried out correctly, periods like this additionally function a wonderful team-building train. I ought to emphasize that the individual main this train must be an skilled facilitator.
Amongst different issues, my co-facilitator and I’d educate attendees methods to craft and use a WBS. Representatives from every division—regulatory, advertising and marketing, manufacturing, gross sales, and so forth—would produce their very own WBS by making use of sticky notes to flip charts on the partitions of a big convention room. (For distant conferences, Miro is a wonderful instrument for the same exercise.) Groups can develop the WBS by following a top-down or bottom-up strategy: Within the first state of affairs, a crew arranges sticky notes that title bigger work objects after which provides sticky notes representing subtasks. Within the second state of affairs, the subtasks are organized first. Group preferences dictate which strategy works finest, however I’ve at all times discovered top-down simpler to check.
Every crew aimed to map out the whole thing of its scope. If that stage of element wasn’t doable (as a result of a key consultant couldn’t attend or for some other cause), the crew would nonetheless embody a planning bundle for these objects on the WBS and elaborate upon them later. The group brainstorming allowed the groups to visualise the complete contours of the proposed work. You’ll be able to think about the energetic debates that ensued. Folks would say issues like, “Is that this actually what we’re doing?” or “That doesn’t belong right here; it belongs there.” On the finish of the two-day periods, every crew had produced its personal WBS, and we had a visible image of the venture. The sponsor may look across the room and say, “Sure, there’s my product,” or “The place is the advertising and marketing requirement we mentioned?” By means of these discussions, the crew understood the character of its work in larger element.
Whereas the attendees have been mapping out their work, my colleague and I’d enter the duties right into a scheduler like Microsoft Undertaking or Smartsheet. Then we centered on linking the objects to supply an preliminary timeline for the complete venture. The scope could require official approval and sign-off from the sponsor and different stakeholders, so the schedule created in the course of the assembly is barely a tough draft. Nonetheless, the schedule illustrates how a WBS has nearly instantaneous utility, permitting groups to start making ready for the subsequent venture steps. In the true world, groups usually skip WBS planning and bounce on to constructing a schedule, forcing them to consider “what” and “when” concurrently. In my expertise, the WBS gives a beneficial alternative to element what goes into the scope first, earlier than figuring out when the work must happen.
It’s vital to notice that specialised instruments may also help venture managers develop a WBS. One is named WBS Schedule Professional, and it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Undertaking. If a venture supervisor can’t deliver the complete crew collectively, both in individual or just about, I nonetheless encourage venture managers to draft a WBS on their very own, maybe utilizing a specialised instrument. The venture supervisor can current this draft to the crew at a gathering. The draft could get some issues unsuitable, however imagine me, the crew will likely be blissful to right these points. That’s factor.
For the report, I additionally requested ChatGPT to generate a WBS for me, and it did so in a bulleted format. The final breakdown was surprisingly good. With cautious prompting, I believe venture managers may flip to generative AI instruments for useful brainstorming help and even coax a picture generator equivalent to Dall-E 3 to render a graphical WBS. After all, the outcomes would require double-checking for accuracy.
Different Outcomes of WBS Planning
Whereas the WBS could seem to be “merely” a scope instrument, it provides way more than that. Undertaking managers need to concern themselves not solely with scope but in addition with prices, dangers, assets, stakeholders, and any variety of points. If a part of the scope is lacking, this implies there are:
- No assets related to it.
- No schedule allowed for it.
- No dangers recognized for it.
- No stakeholders specified.
- No assumptions made about it.
These points don’t go on the WBS, but when the crew is already assembled in a big convention room for WBS planning—or collaborating just about utilizing a instrument like Miro—it presents a wonderful alternative to start addressing them. Actually, I keep that there is no such thing as a higher time to do that, provided that the venture supervisor already has the suitable individuals in the suitable place on the proper time. The crew can have a look at the fleshed-out WBS and say, “How many individuals do I would like for this venture?” or “What are the dangers concerned?” And the sponsor could sigh and ask, “How a lot will all this price?”
Utilizing flip charts or on-line whiteboards, the crew can begin to report dangers, assets, and motion objects in what we name parking heaps. (The federal government formally defines the relationships between these associated considerations utilizing a doc known as a work breakdown construction dictionary. Nevertheless, I’ve by no means encountered a crew that makes use of this dictionary in nongovernment contexts.)
Does the WBS Work in Agile?
An Agilist studying this may say, “All of this sounds nice, however can we use this?” Strictly talking, the reply is sure—PMI’s Apply Commonplace for Work Breakdown Buildings even features a part on utilizing the WBS in Agile. But I wouldn’t advocate it, provided that one of many primary variations between conventional venture administration and Agile is how scope is dealt with.
We sometimes use Waterfall after we—or the shopper or sponsor—have a really clear concept of what we would like as an finish consequence, consequence, or product. Change is permissible however requires a considerably laborious change management course of. In Agile, the top consequence will not be as well-defined, permitting the sponsor or product proprietor the luxurious of fixing their thoughts because the venture evolves. This implies the scope may change from dash to dash—sometimes solely every week or two in period—so time spent creating the WBS would distract the crew from the worth they need to give attention to delivering.
Higher Planning Means Higher Initiatives
The method of making a WBS could sound time-consuming, and it may be, particularly if a venture supervisor doesn’t have all of the stakeholders within the planning session or the necessities aren’t nicely understood. With sufficient upfront preparation, nonetheless, making a WBS as a crew is usually a little bit of a miracle. It brings everybody collectively, enforces planning, sparks dialog, and results in documented discussions about who, what, when, and the place. These outcomes will save time in the long term.
I’ve carried out a couple of dozen of the two-day planning workshops I described earlier, and we by no means failed to finish with total sense of the venture. If I’m managing a Waterfall venture, I’ll use the WBS each time doable, even when I can’t pull the crew collectively for 2 days. The WBS is key to planning, and, put merely, higher planning results in higher execution.
Need in-depth steering on facilitating venture conferences? Jim’s e-book Nice Conferences Construct Nice Groups: A Information for Undertaking Leaders and Agilists provides sensible recommendation on enhancing crew cohesion and getting probably the most out of venture administration conferences and Agile occasions.
