Wbs examples microsoft project

Let me teach you how to plan a solid WBS for your construction project schedule. Check out these examples of a construction project WBS. Click the image to enlarge it. Check out the Aircraft Systems project work breakdown structure. This highlights the fact that a project schedule can contain many different types of deliverables and work — Program or Project Management included.

However, you can always reverse these if it makes more sense or ensure clarity for your construction project schedule. You can also continue to develop your WBS deeper than level 4 shown here. Again this is a very common example work breakdown structure for many large-scale construction projects. This tunneling construction project example is based on a few real projects I have personally developped construction project schedules for.

With many tunneling projects, the work progresses linearly and it can make it easy to establish your WBS to follow the work as well. A linear WBS will make the project schedule very easy to read and understand.

This construction WBS sample goes to level 5, thus the work packages would comprise level 6. Most construction projects aim to be level 5 to 7 in detail, however it is possible to include too much detail. The example WBS for a commercial building above provides a good starting outline for a real project. Note that this sample construction building project work breakdown structure has a detailed multi-level section for Design work.

The construction work is broken down first by trade discipline, then by work type or perhaps phase. Make your first WBS node at level 1 a place to put your major milestones. A WBS has three major purposes:. The degree of detail in a WBS depends on the level of accuracy that is required in estimates and the level of tracking that is required against those estimates.

Projects that have very low tolerance for slippages in schedule or cost usually require a more detailed WBS, and diligent tracking of work progress and cost against the WBS. This kind of project is common in the construction and engineering industries.

By contrast, projects in industries such as media and advertising, software, and IT infrastructure tend to be one of a kind, and productivity is relative to the experience and competency of the individual who is performing the task.

Therefore, these industries use a WBS to get an approximation of the size of a project, not to track the progress of that project in detail.

Building a WBS is an intensive process that is usually done over a long period, and that requires collaboration and information from a wide variety of people.

This topic describes how you can use WBS enhancements to meet your requirements for estimates and tracking. Set up standard working days and working hours. The calendar that you set as the working calendar for your project will be used in the WBS to determine the following information:. To use the full cost estimation capabilities of the WBS, you should set up the costs and sales prices for workers, categories of labor, expenses, and fees, and items.

Creating a breakdown or decomposition of work is usually the first step in the process of creating a WBS. The WBS functionality supports the following basic constructs for work breakdown or decomposition. Project root task The project root task is the top-level summary task for a project. All other project tasks are created beneath it. The name of the root task is always set to the project name.

The effort, dates, and duration of the root node summarize the values for the tasks beneath the root task. Summary or container tasks A summary task is a task that has sub-tasks or constituent tasks beneath it. Instead, the work effort and cost of a summary task are the sum of the work effort and cost of its constituent tasks. The earliest start date of the constituent tasks is used as the start date of the summary task, and the latest end date of the constituent tasks is used as the end date.

If you delete a summary task, you also delete all its constituent tasks. Leaf node tasks A leaf node task represents the most granular work package on the project.

A leaf node has an estimated effort, a planned number of resources, a planned start date and end date, and duration. You can complete the following hierarchy operations to enable the creation of a work hierarchy or decomposition for a project.

New task Any new task that you create is automatically added under the root node, and a WBS number is automatically assigned to the task.

For tasks in the first level under the project root task, a numbering scheme of 1, 2, 3, and so on is used. For tasks that are under the first level, a numbering scheme of 1. For each level that is added under a previous level, a new dotted series of numbers is added. Indent task When you indent a task, it becomes a child of the task that precedes it. The parent task is now a summary or container task, and therefore becomes a roll-up of its constituent tasks. When you indent tasks under a task that was a leaf node before the indent operation, the newly created summary task loses its own dates, effort, and number of resources.

It now uses a summary of the values of its new constituent tasks. Schedule estimation is usually the second step in creating a WBS. As a best practice, you should complete schedule estimation after you create the tasks. The Work breakdown structure page in Finance has two sections.

The upper pane is intended for schedule estimation, and the lower pane includes an Estimated costs and revenues tab that you can use for cost estimation. Task dependencies In a WBS, you can create a predecessor relationship between tasks. When you assign predecessor tasks to a task, that task can start only after all its predecessor tasks have been completed. The planned start date of the task is automatically set to the latest date of all its predecessors. Task scheduling The following factors determine the scheduling of leaf node tasks:.

The duration of a leaf node task is always calculated as the number of working days between its start and end dates. Scheduling rules When automatic scheduling assistance is turned on, the following rules apply to task scheduling for leaf node tasks:. In some cases, you might want to deviate from these rules. You can turn off automatic scheduling to prevent Finance from automatically setting or correcting any properties of leaf node tasks.

When you enter information for a task that causes a violation of any scheduling rules, a scheduling error icon is shown for the task. The values for a summary or container task continue to be calculated as the sum of the values of the constituent tasks, regardless of whether automatic scheduling assistance is turned on or off. However, if you turn off automatic scheduling assistance and then turn it back on later, scheduling error icons might appear in the WBS.

Fixing scheduling errors by task When you double-click the schedule error icon for a specific task, a dialog box displays all the scheduling errors for that task. You can decide which scheduling errors to fix for the task. This feature can cause significant modifications to the WBS. Errors are corrected in the following order:. As was mentioned earlier in this document, you enter the cost estimation for each leaf node task by using the Estimated costs and revenues tab in the lower pane of the Work breakdown structure page.

Define the project goals and objectives. Begin with the project charter—the scope, dreams, and participating in the project—determine what it is and describe it. Next is the project phases: break the more comprehensive project statement of intent into a series of stages that will take it from conception to completion. What are your deliverables? List them all and note what is necessary for those deliverables to be deemed successfully delivered sub-deliverables, work packages, resources, participants, etc.

Take your deliverables from above, break them down into every task, and subtask necessary to deliver them. Finally, make a list of all those tasks. With the tasks now laid out, assign them to the team. Give each team member the tools, resources, and authority they need to do the job.

Watch this video if you prefer a visual and verbal explanation of this information on work breakdown structures. In fact, there are, many different types. Here are a select few:. Also known as an outline view, this is a list of tasks or deliverables with subtasks. The most commonly seen version, the tree structure depiction of a WBS, is an organizational chart with all the same elements of the list phases, deliverables, sub deliverables, and work packages but represents the workflow or progress as defined by a diagrammatic representation.

While the classic WBS is a tree diagram, all the parts in that graphic are laid out in a spreadsheet, noting the different phases, tasks, or deliverables in columns and rows.

A Gantt chart is both a spreadsheet and a timeline. The Gantt chart is a WBS that can do more than a static spreadsheet or tree diagram. So, with a dynamic Gantt chart, you can link dependencies, set milestones, even put a baseline. Ultimately, that is the most common version of project management software. The WBS forms the backbone for several project management activities. To integrate the WBS in the project schedule using MS Project, you need to add more information to the indented tree structure of the WBS that you have already created.

Therefore, the vital information that you need to add includes:. Therefore, the WBS dictionary helps integrate other project management processes with the project scope. In addition, it serves as a valuable tool for clarifying the exact project requirements regarding the content of work, cost, milestones, etc.

A well-defined WBS can be a significant contributing factor in ensuring the success of your project. Also, it serves as the critical integrating factor between different project management processes. Moreover, it is considered as a foundation stone. Generally speaking, a WBS should include about three levels of detail. WBS stands for a work breakdown structure. It is a type of chart which is commonly used in system engineering and project management. Also, it should have at least two child elements.

Mutually exclusive: All aspects at a particular level in a WBS must be mutually exclusive. There must be no overlap in either their deliverables or their work.

Every project has a WBS like they all have schedules and budgets. A good WBS is essential for defining the scope of a project. The WBS is the primary input in creating the project schedule, store, and risk plan.

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