In an organization we all are involved in some kind of project at any point of time. However, this project can be a big one having 1-2 years or larger duration. On other side it can be a very small, where required completion duration can be around a week of time or lesser. In any case there are numbers of activities involved from start to finish of the project. So, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a method in project management to divide the complex and multi-stage project work into smaller and manageable small tasks.
In result, WBS method enable a project manager to assign the work packages to different teams simultaneously. Moreover, he or she can manage & lead the team in an easier and better productive way.
Table of Contents
What is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?
This is a technique, which breaks down the big and complex project work into the small and manageable tasks. And, these tasks can be executed by the project team to complete the project work timely and successfully. So, what a WBS does? This we can understand as below:
- It organizes and define the total scope of work and gives clarity of total quantum of the work, which you need to take as a project manager to finish the project.
- Project’s WBS divides and subdivides the total project work from start to finish into smaller, easily manageable and assignable tasks.
- In WBS every descending level represents smaller but clear and detailed information of the work. And, the last level of WBS we know as a “Work Package”.
- A work package is most important project deliverable for a Project Manager. As, he or she can schedule, cost estimate, monitor and control it.
As we know, to process a work package, we need resources and time. And various types of resources are Man, Machine, Money, Material & Methods. So, once we are through with detailed work breakdown structure, we can estimate the resources and time requirements accurately for our project. This information is very important for all the stakeholders.
Utility of a Work Breakdown Structure
Once WBS of a project is ready, project manager gets in depth insight of the total work from start to finish. Now project manager can prepare a proper strategy and define an approach for the project work, using project scheduling techniques. He can work upon project implementation tactics including more accurate project cost estimation. Moreover, he can estimate implementation time for the project work more precisely.
Project manager can use WBS for resource estimating & planning also. Like when and how many resources are required, like civil contractors, mechanical fabricators, painters, instrumentation and electrical technicians. He can plan material delivery and service requirement from vendors accordingly.
Apart from this, in case of any specific and costly resources are required, can be planned accurately and, in a cost, effective manner.
Example of a WBS
Let us consider an example of a project for Waste Heat Boiler installation. Below is the simple work breakdown structure to understand the concept. Here we have divided complete project in three major groups, which are Engineering, Procurement & Construction. This we can see in below WBS.
Subsequently, in lower level of division we can list down into small, manageable and assignable tasks. This you can see in each group as we have done. For example, in Engineering group we have divided work into PFD, MB & HB of the system. This work package is clear-cut, for which we can estimate required resource, cost and time easily, for this estimated time is 4 days. This task you can assign to some competitive process engineer and as a project manager you can manage & control this activity easily. Similarly, we can work out for all the groups and levels.
To complete any work package, we need resources from Man, Machine, Material, Money or Methods. To process some work package, we require only single resource type, while for other we may need multiple type of resources. Once we have information about time required and type and quantity of resource requirement to process a work package, cost estimation is easy and more accurate.
However, above work breakdown structure template is simple. You can expand it to simplest level to get the details of type and quantity of resource required. As I have shown in construction group, where we require multiple types of resources.
Now in subsequent section we will see how can we use this WBS to develop other important deliverables in project management.
Cost Control Cube (CCC)
This is a concept in project management which was developed for monitoring and controlling the project costs. This cost control cube is developed using three breakdown structures as below:
- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) – As we discussed in previous sections.
- Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS) – This is a model of the organization of project management team in a hierarchical way. This model specifies which team member will be responsible for the particular part of the project. The purpose of OBS is for planning and controlling of the involved people or employees.
- Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS) – This is the level wise breakdown of project into cost elements. To prepare CBS we require WBS first and we estimate the cost at each level based on the “work package”. This you can see in above work breakdown structure sample template also.
Above is the pictorial representation of a Cost Control Cube (CCC) for your reference.
Conclusion
We can see developing work breakdown structure (WBS) for our project is a very important deliverable. This is the basic and important document for many other documents, which includes organization breakdown structure (OBS) and cost breakdown structure (CBS).
After preparing all three breakdown structures, we can use these to develop cost control cube (CCC). We can use cost control cube to monitor, control and forecast the cost as per project deliverable from WBS and team member involved using OBS.
Thanks for reading.