In terms of managing Waterfall initiatives, probably the most necessary first steps is figuring out scope—what’s in and what’s out for the challenge. This significant data is usually outlined in a challenge scope assertion that names the challenge’s main deliverables and exclusions. A well-crafted challenge assertion could appear adequate to determine the scope—and it may be. But I can attest to the unimaginable 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 challenge administration device that does precisely what the title implies: subdivides the product and corresponding initiatives into distinct increments of labor. As a result of our brains prefer to work visually, the WBS turns into an efficient means for the workforce to conceptualize its work.
Typically talking, scope is pushed by necessities elicited from the shopper or sponsor. A sponsor might strategy a challenge supervisor with the preliminary parameters for a new product, akin to a line of laptops that the corporate will promote in North America. From there, the challenge supervisor or enterprise analyst derives a collection 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 necessary to keep in mind that, on this context, the scope contains something contributing to the challenge’s end result. This implies not solely product scope (the options and capabilities of the laptop computer) but in addition challenge scope (the work required to ship these outcomes). The challenge scope might entail duties like lining up manufacturing for the laptop computer or allocating assets for challenge administration.
Exclusions are essential to file 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 forestall scope creep, which happens when somebody provides extra work with out contemplating its influence on schedule, prices, dangers, and assets. Any workforce member can verify 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 workforce invests the time to develop a WBS collectively, it supplies a chance for everybody to visualise and interpret everything of the scope—what’s in and what’s out—together with associated points akin to budgets and timelines. As such, I like to consider the WBS as a challenge’s Rosetta stone.
What Is a Work Breakdown Construction?
The WBS was developed by the US Division of Protection within the Fifties and continues to be generally utilized by authorities groups and contractors, on condition that challenge outcomes in these contexts are sometimes decided on the outset. The WBS can be beneficial in different conditions the place Waterfall is required, which is extra widespread than many challenge professionals might notice. Regardless of the ascendancy of Agile methodologies, which don’t embrace the WBS as a part of the usual toolkit, 39% of knowledge expertise initiatives nonetheless make use of Waterfall, in accordance with the Undertaking Administration Institute (PMI). In different industries, the chances are even larger.
The WBS breaks the challenge 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 completely different branches.
The primary stage of the WBS identifies the challenge. The second stage divides the challenge into phases, deliverables, or capabilities. The selection relies upon fully on workforce preferences, however I favor phases as a result of they extra readily align with Waterfall’s sequenced strategy. The next layers are then subdivided till reaching an increment referred to as a work package deal. Most often, work packages require not more than two weeks (80 hours) to finish, however that isn’t inviolate. In giant authorities or aerospace initiatives, for instance, a piece package deal 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.
Typically a WBS will incorporate a specialised numbering scheme that echoes the hierarchical breakdown. Probably the most fundamental 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 initiatives, it’s sometimes a requirement.
It’s essential to notice that even when a workforce organizes a WBS in accordance with phases or capabilities within the second layer, the WBS continues 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 issues.
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 challenge 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 Follow Commonplace for Work Breakdown Constructions (a wonderful useful resource for anybody who desires to know the main points of this device): “The WBS creates a standard language amongst all challenge stakeholders, together with challenge administration and subject-matter facets.” In my expertise, that is undoubtedly the case.
How you can Create a Work Breakdown Construction
Ideally, WBS planning shouldn’t be a solitary exercise {that a} challenge 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 scale of the challenge, one WBS could also be sufficient, though in some instances, every workforce might wish to make its personal WBS.
As a guide, I’ve led challenge kickoff occasions for quite a few organizations, together with international pharmaceutical corporations, for which I co-facilitated in depth two-day working periods to plan new drug improvement initiatives. 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 satisfy and higher perceive the product they’d finally be producing. When finished correctly, periods like this additionally function a wonderful team-building train. I ought to emphasize that the particular person main this train needs to be an skilled facilitator.
Amongst different issues, my co-facilitator and I might train attendees tips on how to craft and use a WBS. Representatives from every division—regulatory, advertising, 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 superb device for the same exercise.) Groups can develop the WBS by following a top-down or bottom-up strategy: Within the first situation, a workforce arranges sticky notes that title bigger work objects after which provides sticky notes representing subtasks. Within the second situation, the subtasks are organized first. Crew preferences dictate which strategy works greatest, 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 potential (as a result of a key consultant couldn’t attend or for every other purpose), the workforce would nonetheless embrace a planning package deal 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 may 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 workforce had produced its personal WBS, and we had a visible image of the challenge. The sponsor might look across the room and say, “Sure, there’s my product,” or “The place is the advertising requirement we mentioned?” By means of these discussions, the workforce understood the character of its work in higher element.
Whereas the attendees have been mapping out their work, my colleague and I might 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 your complete challenge. 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 getting ready for the following challenge steps. In the true world, groups typically skip WBS planning and bounce on to constructing a schedule, forcing them to consider “what” and “when” concurrently. In my expertise, the WBS supplies a beneficial 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 might help challenge managers develop a WBS. One is known as WBS Schedule Professional, and it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Undertaking. If a challenge supervisor can’t convey your complete workforce collectively, both in particular person or nearly, I nonetheless encourage challenge managers to draft a WBS on their very own, maybe utilizing a specialised device. The challenge supervisor can current this draft to the workforce at a gathering. The draft might get some issues flawed, however imagine me, the workforce will probably be glad to appropriate these points. That’s a great factor.
For the file, 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 challenge managers might flip to generative AI instruments for useful brainstorming help and even coax a picture generator akin to Dall-E 3 to render a graphical WBS. In fact, the outcomes would require double-checking for accuracy.
Different Outcomes of WBS Planning
Whereas the WBS might appear to be “merely” a scope device, it affords rather 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 workforce is already assembled in a big convention room for WBS planning—or collaborating nearly utilizing a device like Miro—it presents a wonderful alternative to start addressing them. In truth, I preserve that there isn’t any higher time to do that, on condition that the challenge supervisor already has the correct individuals in the correct place on the proper time. The workforce can have a look at the fleshed-out WBS and say, “How many individuals do I want for this challenge?” 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 file dangers, assets, and motion objects in what we name parking tons. (The federal government formally defines the relationships between these associated issues 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 Follow Commonplace for Work Breakdown Constructions even features a part on utilizing the WBS in Agile. But I wouldn’t advocate it, on condition that one of many fundamental variations between conventional challenge 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 wish as an finish consequence, end result, or product. Change is permissible however requires a considerably laborious change management course of. In Agile, the tip consequence just isn’t as well-defined, permitting the sponsor or product proprietor the posh of fixing their thoughts because the challenge 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 deal with delivering.
Higher Planning Means Higher Tasks
The method of making a WBS might sound time-consuming, and it may be, particularly if a challenge supervisor doesn’t have all of the stakeholders within the planning session or the necessities usually are not effectively understood. With sufficient upfront preparation, nonetheless, making a WBS as a workforce could be 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 great general sense of the challenge. If I’m managing a Waterfall challenge, I’ll use the WBS at any time when potential, even when I can’t pull the workforce collectively for 2 days. The WBS is key to planning, and, put merely, higher planning results in higher execution.
Need in-depth steerage on facilitating challenge conferences? Jim’s ebook 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 challenge administration conferences and Agile occasions.