Hi
I am to do a wbs for a corporate function and my manager has given me the 4 phases: planning and initiation, execution, closeout and BBQ.
I am not sure if BBQ is a summary task or should be a work package.
If the latter how will i display BBQ has a work package...please help. Saving Changes...
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William WiliamsProject Manager| W3src ConsultingCanyon, Tx, United States
Tamilla: Aside from ethical considerations involved with other people doing your course work for you, there is something else you should be consider.
Answers to test or homework questions in an academic setting or certification course and answers you obtain from people applying PM principles in the corporate world can, and will, be quite different. Saving Changes...
Ravi AnandProject Manager| Fujitsu ConsultingPune, India
Hi Tamilia,
The relation is ,
WBS->Work Package->Task->Activity, so activity is the lowest level, and actually you have to do the activity, its the lowest element whcih we can not further de-composite. So its up to you where you have to put BBQ.
Planning and initiation, execution, closeout are the phases of project management, it does not have to do anything with your WBS. WBS Phase comes under Planning.
Just to clarify, is the corporate function a BBQ ?
Also, although William is quite correct in that the academic view of project management tends to be different from how it is actually applied, perhaps this is an opportunity to change that and bring the academic approach into the real world more fully. Saving Changes...
William WiliamsProject Manager| W3src ConsultingCanyon, Tx, United States
With all due respect to those responding, isn't it best that the lady do her own homework? Saving Changes...
Darren KosaPlanning & Controls ContractorHampshire, United Kingdom
Hi Tamilia,
I may be flying in the face of public opinion (and probably PMBOK), but it seems to me you’re going about this the wrong way. Have you considered that trying to generate a time-phased WBS, will only increase the risk that you do not adequately capture the full scope of the Project?
What you seem to be describing is a Project Lifecycle and not a WBS. If you think of a Project in terms of ‘How’, ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘Where’, ‘Why’, and ‘When’, then the WBS is the ‘What’.
A WBS should only focus on the deliverables, it won’t tell you ‘Why’ a Project has been commissioned, nor should it describe ‘How’ it will be accomplished, ‘Who’ will deliver it, ‘When’ the Project will start and finish, or ‘Where’ the teams will be physically located.
It only defines the deliverables, internal and external, required to complete the scope of the project.
A Project Lifecycle on the other hand is the framework for a Project. It represents the phases a Project must go through before it can be considered complete. Depending on your own organisations Project Management methodology it may be linked to Quality Gates, but the phases in themselves are not deliverables.
A WBS may help you shape your Project Lifecycle, but I’m firmly in the camp that believes your Project Lifecycle shouldn’t be used to create your WBS.
WBS 101 over, the Microsoft Office site has some fairly basic Project Templates that may be of use to you.
Excellent information Darren. Just one query, my organisation does not use a Project Lifecycle as a standard document but it does seem very similar to our project definition activity, in which I would include a WBS in order to clarify the deliverables. If you're not using the lifecycle to shape the WBS, do you mean you create the WBS before defining the lifecycle? Saving Changes...
Josh NankivelEngineering Project Manager| AppleSioux Falls, Sd, United States
Time-phasing a WBS is a really bad idea in my experience. Saving Changes...
Darren KosaPlanning & Controls ContractorHampshire, United Kingdom
Hi Tim,
Project lifecyles tend to fit in with organisational processes for project governance, so it’s not a document per se, but rather predefined gates projects pass through before embarking on the next phase.
Certain project management WBS elements will be common across most projects, but the technical WBS elements may not, which is why I would create the WBS as you are defining the project, and then tailor the lifecycle so it satisfies your organisational rules on project governance.
As technical deliverables should not cross phases, the lifecycle would then be shaped by the deliverables being produced during a particular phase, rather than the other way round.
Apologies for the tardy reply by the way, but I only swing by here once ever so often.
