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Work Breakdown Structure

Is your WBS a Solid Foundation for Success?

By Dick Billows, PMP, GCA Summary: In our 5-step project methodology, we how you why a good WBS is not a detailed "To do" list. But too many PMs and executives think all that micro-detail gives them tight control. It actually gives them less control and a schedule that is too detailed to track and keep up to date.

Too many project managers build a WBS that gives them no foundation for clear assignments, close tracking or tight scope control. In the AdPM™ methodology we teach PMs to focus on holding team members accountable for achievements not micro-managing them. But too many PM use the "to do" approach.

These PMs think their work breakdown structures (WBS) should be a To Do list for the project so they can tell everybody everything they need to do. As a result their projects fail most of the time. Yes, its those PMs who are to blame for the 70% project failure rates you read about. Let's see why.

They create this big list by writing down what needs to be done in order from first to last. That approach requires little thinking and not much time and in a short while they have a long list of to do's. When a PM takes that approach these things happen:

• The project takes about 50% longer than it should
• The to do list expands weekly during the project's entire life
• The project manager makes vague, unclear assignments to the team
• The team spends hours in status meetings discussing what to do next
• The project finishes late and requires weeks of rework after it is finished.

To avoid this nasty list, we teach project managers to decompose the project's scope into the WBS. Decomposition takes longer than jotting down a to do list and it requires a lot more thinking. But taking that extra time and doing that thinking gives you a professional grade WBS. Consistently successful project managers always use decomposition because is saves time during the project and makes for better control.

Look at the section of a WBS below. It was developed using our Achievement-driven Project Methodology™. The PM took the scope and decomposed it into 7 High-level achievements (3 are shown in the screen shot). Then the high level achievements were in turn decomposed in to smaller achievements. Then we further divide those deliverables down to the level of individual assignments. This process takes some thinking and you need to master the right technique but consistent success on your projects requires that you master those skills.

Take a look at our Mentoring over the Web courses where you work with a PM mentor to master the decomposition process by actually developing a WBS based on meetings with stakeholders.

How many tasks should this project have?

There is no magic number but the usual mistake project managers make is to lay out too many tasks. Their work breakdown structure (WBS) is a to do list of one-hour chores. It's easy to get caught up in the idea that a project plan should detail everything everybody is going to do on the project. This springs from the screwy logic that a project manager's job is to walk around with a checklist of 17,432 items and tick each item off as people complete them.

This "to do" list approach is usually linked with another fallacy. Namely, that the project plan should be a step-by-step procedure for doing everything in the project in case we have to do it again. If the PM is managing the wrong things, this may be handy because we increase the odds of having to do this project again. Sponsors encourage these fallacies by marveling at monstrous project plans because they make it seem that the PM has thought of everything.

Unfortunately, on significant cross-functional projects, there is absolutely no chance that the project manager will think of everything. The subject matter experts and specialists are the ones we must hold accountable for that. The result of these fallacies is that PMs produce project plans with hundreds or even thousands of tasks. Many of them have durations of a few hours or a few days. Does this level of detail give us better control and lead to successful projects? In our view, a to do list approach does not give effective control, and it interferes with the achievement of a successful end result.

The laundry list approach

First, the laundry list approach leads to, and even encourages, micro-management of the people working on the project. Micro-management is appropriate when you have slackers and nincompoops working for you, but few project teams are composed entirely of these losers. The majority of your project team members will not thrive under micro-management. This style tends to encourage dependency on the project manager rather than independence where people are held responsible for their results.

Second, PMs are consistently more effective when they hold people accountable for reaching measured achievements rather than completing a list of tasks. How often does it happen that people complete a list of tasks and achieve nothing? When we base our assignments and monitoring on well conceived and measurable achievements, no one loses sight of the desired end result.

Third, the laundry list approach is hard to maintain. People have to report on many tasks which decreases the odds of receiving accurate and timely status reports. The PM, with or without clerical support, has a great deal of data entry to do to input all this status data. Amid the pressure of on-going multiple projects, tracking can fall behind and may even be dropped because the amount of effort is too large. This may sound like a stupid and improbable solution, but it happens with alarming frequency even on large and important projects. The logic is, "No one is looking at all that detail anyway, so why spend all that time to catch up?"

As a general rule, we like to see the majority of assignments in a project plan have durations that are between 1 week and 8 weeks long. Coupled with this, we advocate weekly status reporting of hours worked, percentage complete and an estimate of the hours of work remaining to complete the assignment. This combination allows the project manager to maintain good control while placing the responsibility for achievements on the team members.

Using the work breakdown structure (WBS) for cross-functional corporate projects, you have the opportunity to design a assignment and monitoring process. As part of our Achievement-driven approach, we recommend breaking work down into "packets" of achievement for which you will hold people and teams accountable.

Learn how to craft a WBS that makes your projects more successful by working with a PM mentor in our on-line courses