In terms of managing Waterfall tasks, one of the necessary first steps is figuring out scope—what’s in and what’s out for the venture. This significant data is usually outlined in a venture scope assertion that names the venture’s main deliverables and exclusions. A well-crafted venture assertion could seem adequate to determine 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 typically skipped.

The WBS is a visible venture administration device that does precisely what the title implies: subdivides the product and corresponding tasks into distinct increments of labor. As a result of our brains prefer to work visually, the WBS turns into an efficient manner for the workforce to conceptualize its work.

Usually talking, scope is pushed by necessities elicited from the client or sponsor. A sponsor might method a venture supervisor with the preliminary parameters for a new product, comparable to a line of laptops that the corporate will promote in North America. From there, the venture supervisor or enterprise analyst derives a collection of necessities, asking questions like, “What colours will the laptops be?” “What’s the exhausting drive’s imply time between failures?” “What number of USB ports are wanted?” It’s necessary to keep in mind that, on this context, the scope consists of something contributing to the venture’s end result. This implies not solely product scope (the options and capabilities of the laptop computer) but additionally venture scope (the work required to ship these outcomes). The venture scope might entail duties like lining up manufacturing for the laptop computer or allocating assets for venture administration.

Exclusions are essential to document within the scope assertion in order that later nobody asks one thing like, “Why aren’t we transport to the UK?” As soon as permitted, this scope baseline helps forestall scope creep, which happens when somebody provides extra work with out contemplating its impression on schedule, prices, dangers, and assets. Any workforce member can verify the scope assertion and see that each 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 workforce invests the time to develop a WBS collectively, it offers a possibility for everybody to visualise and interpret everything of the scope—what’s in and what’s out—together with associated points comparable to budgets and timelines. As such, I like to consider 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, on condition that venture outcomes in these contexts are sometimes decided on the outset. The WBS can be invaluable in different conditions the place Waterfall is required, which is extra frequent than many venture professionals might understand. Regardless of the ascendancy of Agile methodologies, which don’t embody the WBS as a part of the usual toolkit, 39% of data know-how tasks nonetheless make use of Waterfall, in response to the Undertaking Administration Institute (PMI). In different industries, the chances are even larger.

The WBS breaks the venture scope into progressively smaller increments. This hierarchical rendering can seem in tabular or listing codecs, however the most typical (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 capabilities. The selection relies upon totally on workforce preferences, however I want phases as a result of they extra readily align with Waterfall’s sequenced method. The next layers are then subdivided till reaching an increment referred to as a work bundle. Normally, work packages require not more than two weeks (80 hours) to finish, however that isn’t inviolate. In massive authorities or aerospace tasks, for instance, a piece bundle might take a number of hundred hours. I’ve not often seen a WBS drill down greater than 4 or 5 ranges. By then, the workforce ought to have adequate data to know what work must be finished.

Generally a WBS will incorporate a specialised numbering scheme that echoes the hierarchical breakdown. Essentially the most fundamental type 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 workforce organizes a WBS in response to phases or capabilities within the second layer, the WBS remains to be a “what” doc, not a “who” or “when” doc. It ought to seize everything of the work that should happen (typically referred to as the 100% rule) however not who does it or when. Nonetheless, as soon as the workforce has created a WBS to outline what work should happen, everybody can extra simply speak about these associated considerations.

So the place does the Rosetta stone a part of this are available? The WBS is a visible reference that enables workforce members to align on a shared understanding of product and venture scope. It additionally helps the workforce start to make sense of different points, like prices, dangers, assets, and schedules. As PMI eloquently places it in its Observe Customary for Work Breakdown Buildings (a superb useful resource for anybody who needs to know the main points of this device): “The WBS creates a typical language amongst all venture stakeholders, together with venture administration and subject-matter elements.” In my expertise, that is undoubtedly the case.

Find out how 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 method is how the frequent language comes into being. Relying on the dimensions of the venture, one WBS could also be sufficient, though in some circumstances, every workforce might need to make its personal WBS.

As a advisor, 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 improvement tasks. The drug improvement course of can take 10 to fifteen years, however the scope is outlined at first. Stakeholders would attend from far-flung corners of the globe to fulfill and higher perceive the product they might finally be producing. When finished correctly, periods like this additionally function a superb team-building train. I ought to emphasize that the particular person main this train must be an skilled facilitator.

Amongst different issues, my co-facilitator and I’d educate attendees how you can 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 device for the same exercise.) Groups can develop the WBS by following a top-down or bottom-up method: Within the first state of affairs, a workforce 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. Staff preferences dictate which method works finest, however I’ve at all times discovered top-down simpler to check.

Every workforce aimed to map out everything of its scope. If that stage of element wasn’t attainable (as a result of a key consultant couldn’t attend or for another purpose), the workforce 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. Individuals 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 workforce had produced its personal WBS, and we had a visible image of the venture. The sponsor might look across the room and say, “Sure, there’s my product,” or “The place is the advertising and marketing requirement we mentioned?” By way of these discussions, the workforce understood the character of its work in larger element.

Whereas the attendees had been mapping out their work, my colleague and I’d enter the duties right into a scheduler like Microsoft Undertaking or Smartsheet. Then we targeted on linking the objects to supply an preliminary timeline for the whole venture. The scope might require official approval and sign-off from the sponsor and different stakeholders, so the schedule created through the assembly is simply a tough draft. Nonetheless, the schedule illustrates how a WBS has nearly instantaneous utility, permitting groups to start making ready for the following venture steps. In the actual world, groups typically skip WBS planning and leap on to constructing a schedule, forcing them to consider “what” and “when” concurrently. In my expertise, the WBS offers a invaluable alternative to element what goes into the scope first, earlier than figuring out when the work must happen.

It’s necessary to notice that specialised instruments may also help venture managers develop a WBS. One known as WBS Schedule Professional, and it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Undertaking. If a venture supervisor can’t carry the whole workforce collectively, both in particular person or just about, I nonetheless encourage venture managers to draft a WBS on their very own, maybe utilizing a specialised device. The venture supervisor can current this draft to the workforce at a gathering. The draft might get some issues flawed, however consider me, the workforce will probably be completely satisfied to appropriate these points. That’s a superb factor.

For the document, I additionally requested ChatGPT to generate a WBS for me, and it did so in a bulleted format. The overall breakdown was surprisingly good. With cautious prompting, I think venture managers might flip to generative AI instruments for useful brainstorming help and even coax a picture generator comparable 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 might look like “merely” a scope device, it affords rather more than that. Undertaking managers need to concern themselves not solely with scope but additionally 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 workforce is already assembled in a big convention room for WBS planning—or collaborating just about utilizing a device like Miro—it presents a superb alternative to start addressing them. In reality, I preserve that there isn’t any higher time to do that, on condition that the venture supervisor already has the proper individuals in the proper place on the proper time. The workforce can take a look at the fleshed-out WBS and say, “How many individuals do I want for this venture?” or “What are the dangers concerned?” And the sponsor might sigh and ask, “How a lot will all this value?”

Utilizing flip charts or on-line whiteboards, the workforce can begin to document dangers, assets, and motion objects in what we name parking tons. (The federal government formally defines the relationships between these associated considerations utilizing a doc referred to as a work breakdown construction dictionary. Nevertheless, I’ve by no means encountered a workforce 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 Observe Customary for Work Breakdown Buildings even features a part on utilizing the WBS in Agile. But I wouldn’t suggest it, on condition that one of many essential variations between conventional venture administration and Agile is how scope is dealt with.

We sometimes use Waterfall once we—or the client or sponsor—have a really clear concept of what we wish as an finish outcome, end result, or product. Change is permissible however requires a considerably laborious change management course of. In Agile, the tip outcome is just not as well-defined, permitting the sponsor or product proprietor the luxurious of adjusting their thoughts because the venture evolves. This implies the scope might change from dash to dash—sometimes solely per week or two in length—so time spent creating the WBS would distract the workforce from the worth they need to give attention to delivering.

Higher Planning Means Higher Tasks

The method of making a WBS might 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 will not be properly understood. With sufficient upfront preparation, nevertheless, making a WBS as a workforce generally is 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 a superb general sense of the venture. If I’m managing a Waterfall venture, I’ll use the WBS each time attainable, even when I can’t pull the workforce collectively for 2 days. The WBS is prime 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 affords sensible recommendation on bettering workforce cohesion and getting essentially the most out of venture administration conferences and Agile occasions.