Introduction A WBS refers to a hierarchical breakdown of the entire work to be accomplished to attain the deliverables of the project. It describes the total scope of the project as it begins with the deliverables as stated. In most cases, the WBS breaks the work to be done into smaller sub-sections to make it easy to achieve them. The number of the stages of decompositions is usually influenced by the project size as well as how complex the project is (Demeulemeester & Herroelen, 2002).
Elements of a project plan that depend on the WBS To make a project plan successful, the WBS has to have the following four elements explained below.
a) 100% of the Deliverables It is important for the WBS to have everything needed for the completion of …show more content…
As such, it is important for the team to create a complete WBS before starting any uncertain activity. Firstly, a WBS helps the project team to describe and organize the scope of the entire project in a specific and accurate manner. This is because it is usually done in a hierarchical tree structure with each level in the structure being broken down into smaller and more measurable chunks (Demeulemeester & Herroelen, 2002). Secondly, a complete WBS helps to assign the responsibilities to the team members and resources needed. It also helps in the monitoring and controlling the entire project. The WBS breaks down the deliverables into specific sizes thereby helping the team to be aware of the goals for each deliverable. All this ensures that there is better and precise estimation of the cost, time to be spent, and risk. Lastly, a complete WBS helps the team to double check each of the deliverables according to the specifics of the stakeholders to ensure that none is missing or overlapping (Demeulemeester & Herroelen, …show more content…
The team can change the order of the tasks depending on the availability of resources (Magee & Young, 2006). These are the dependencies the team finds appropriate in helping them to perform the tasks according to their discretion and, hence, the name. For instance, using the same example of the construction, plumbing, and electrical work are first performed before the dry wall can be fitted. This means that these two tasks are mandatory before the dry wall fitting. These two activities, however, cannot be done at the same time, but can be done in any directive as long as they are both finished before the dry wall is
Elements of a project plan that depend on the WBS To make a project plan successful, the WBS has to have the following four elements explained below.
a) 100% of the Deliverables It is important for the WBS to have everything needed for the completion of …show more content…
As such, it is important for the team to create a complete WBS before starting any uncertain activity. Firstly, a WBS helps the project team to describe and organize the scope of the entire project in a specific and accurate manner. This is because it is usually done in a hierarchical tree structure with each level in the structure being broken down into smaller and more measurable chunks (Demeulemeester & Herroelen, 2002). Secondly, a complete WBS helps to assign the responsibilities to the team members and resources needed. It also helps in the monitoring and controlling the entire project. The WBS breaks down the deliverables into specific sizes thereby helping the team to be aware of the goals for each deliverable. All this ensures that there is better and precise estimation of the cost, time to be spent, and risk. Lastly, a complete WBS helps the team to double check each of the deliverables according to the specifics of the stakeholders to ensure that none is missing or overlapping (Demeulemeester & Herroelen, …show more content…
The team can change the order of the tasks depending on the availability of resources (Magee & Young, 2006). These are the dependencies the team finds appropriate in helping them to perform the tasks according to their discretion and, hence, the name. For instance, using the same example of the construction, plumbing, and electrical work are first performed before the dry wall can be fitted. This means that these two tasks are mandatory before the dry wall fitting. These two activities, however, cannot be done at the same time, but can be done in any directive as long as they are both finished before the dry wall is