Managing the project: the Work Breakdown Structure is key to bringing it home on time and on budget.

Good project management helps to successfully manage a unique or one-off event that involves complexity, time or substantial resources. The key to success in project management is the Work Breakdown Structure. No matter what area or function of a firm an analyst, engineer or manager works in, sooner or later (usually sooner and frequently) project management skills will be highly useful. The standard approach for many project managers (PMs) is to be in a reactive firefighting mode; this, however, can be easily avoided using certain techniques. If a project is complex, assistance may be offered in the form of project management software that offers insight and control. For example, using project management software, the future impact of, say, a two-day labor strike at an offshore port can be expressed in terms of effect on project completion time and cost. Similarly, the savings in time and cost of some fortunate event such as finishing a task under budget or early can be determined.

Software packages--such as Microsoft Project or Primavera--make a PM's task easier, but still require development of a high quality WBS. A WBS is like the foundation of a house. A structure of high quality can be built on a strong and complete foundation. An incomplete or inadequate foundation results in ongoing problems and possibly even early abandonment. Project management software automates the tedious, calculation-intense work for determining the critical path and slack time associated with the activities required to complete the project. Consequently, the PM can focus their attention on determining and characterizing the tasks and activities that make up the project under consideration and leave the calculations for the software to analyze.

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A complete WBS will not only assist in reducing cost and expediting project completion, but will also avoid the annoying circumstance that the final 10% of a project takes as much or more resources and time than the initial 90%. Project management techniques anchored on a complete WBS immediately show when a project will actually be completed (regardless of the desired target completion date), and what the impact of any improvement or delay would be on the completion date and overall cost.

What is a WBS?

A Work Breakdown Structure is a list of all the tasks or activities required to complete the project under study. It is a hierarchical process moving from the very general and ending with the very specific (Figure 1). The first level--Activity A--comprises the entire project. The project is then broken down into component parts--Level 2. These components are then splintered into more specific activities (Level 3 and higher). This process continues until the components or tasks are considered to be specific enough that there is no advantage to further breaking down the activities. Each task must:

* Be actionable by a limited number of people and equipment.

* Be deliverable within the scope of the project.

* Consume resources.

* Require the passage of time.

* Be assigned to an individual who is responsible for the monitoring and completion of the task.

Figure 1 depicts a WBS that consists of a unique project A at Level 1. A consists of three activities: B, C and D (Level 2). In Level 3, the activities are refined further. Some activities (E, G and I) require no further refinements, while other activities are refined into more specific components (see Level 4, activities L through Q). Activities could be refined into finer levels of detail than is currently shown. For project management techniques, it does not matter whether the project under consideration is a wedding, construction of a building, integration of a new process or technology in a manufacturing plant, or the development and launch of a new product. These techniques--the WBS and project management software--can assist the planning, monitoring and control of any project no matter how large or small.

Once a WBS determines the tasks necessary to complete a project, you must also characterize each task. For each task, information is provided on: what activities must be completed prior to starting each task, the resources required for the completion of the task, the anticipated duration of the task and the name of the individual responsible for the supervision and completion of the task. Note: one need only characterize the tasks or activities at their most refined level. The software then consolidates the list of specific activities into the more general categories that consist of multiple activities. In our example, activities E, G, I, K, L, M, N, O, P and Q must be defined. However, A, B, C, D, F, H and J do not need to be. By placing the data into software (or using it as the basis of calculation by hand) it is possible to determine how long a project is expected to take, which activities are on the critical path (i.e., the current rate determining steps for the completion of the entire project), how much money is required at what time to ensure the project may proceed as planned and the intensity of use of specialized resources (e.g., if people with highly specialized skills be overused at certain times).

Conducting a WBS

As shown in the figure, the goal is to move from the general (the first level) to the specific (lower levels). Prior to conducting a WBS it is vital to agree on the purpose of the project and the desired specifications. If the purpose of the project is to set up a manufacturing process, the initial step is to consider the scope and specifications of the project including: what products are to be produced, product volumes and possibly acceptable fixed and variable costs. Time to completion and project cost may also be part of the specification, but these two separate dimensions are closely related. Consequently, one should not allow either item to constrain initial thinking when developing a WBS. The interplay between time and cost is considered further once the WBS data have been input into the project management software. (1) Having determined and clearly defined the project purpose and specifications, it is time to conduct the WBS.

To develop a WBS, many PMs place the name of the various activities on post-it notes on a wall or other flat surface. As additional levels are added and further breakdown of component activities occurs, the notes can be added, revised, removed and reorganized. (2) Once the WBS appears complete, critical information can be placed on each post-it note. The critical information for each activity is: person responsible, minimum cost for completion, time required to complete at minimum cost, type and quantity of resources required and precedence (which other activities must be completed before the activity under consideration can be started). (3)

Further Hints

The WBS should be conducted from the perspective of a product, not a process. So activities should involve the completion of some clearly definable task. For example, selection of equipment is a definable task. Avoid considering activities from a process- or skill-based approach. The equivalent process approach of equipment selection would involve separate activities with titles such as purchasing, finance and engineering.

One major challenge in project management is determining the time or cost required to complete an activity. Some books or written standards are available, but sometimes estimates must be used. Repeating attempts to estimate an unfamiliar activity usually increases the quality of time/cost estimates. It is best to overestimate rather than underestimate--it is easier to forgive people for being early and under budget. (4)

So the WBS is Complete. Now What?

Once the WBS is complete the data on each activity are entered into the computer. (5) Then, you will be able to determine obvious things such as how much the entire project costs and less obvious things such as: how long the project will take to complete (the length of the critical path), when different activities should be started and completed, the effect of spending money to reduce the time of an activity (crashing) on the project completion date, the effect of delays in any part of the project and the resources required at different times to complete the project. This information can be displayed graphically or in reports. If the project does not meet expectations in terms of cost, time to completion or resource utilization, it may be possible to modify one or more activities. Once the PM is satisfied with the activities and associated outcomes, the software is used to assist in managing, tracking and monitoring while the project is underway. It is possible to monitor the ongoing performance of the project and to be advised immediately of both the positive and negative effects of any deviation from the plan. And the typical project will have many important good and bad deviations from a plan. By being immediately advised of the impact of these changes it is possible to gain advantage or minimize the disadvantage that these changes may cause.

Project management skills are worth developing, as sooner or later everyone manages at least a few projects. These skills have been proven to be critical for minimizing the cost and inconvenience of delays and taking advantage of opportunities provided by unexpected improvements in required activities. The key to using project management is the mastery and use of WBS. Clearly, this highly complex subject warrants more discussion than can be done here. For more information, see one of the many excellent books such as Fundamentals of Technology Project Management by Garton and McCulloch and Effective Project Management by Wysocki and McGarry.

Ed.: For a list of references please see online version at circuits assembly.com/cms/content/view/3377/.

Dr. Jonathan Linton, is on the faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (rpi.edu) and is editor of Technovation; [e-mail].

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