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WBS

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Mike MelayMember for 14 years 4 months
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Hi All,

Just having a discussion on a recent schedule for a program I am working on, where an activity did not occur and has now been highlighted as a miss from the WBS. It is involved cycle development of piece of equipment.

The standard WBS we use calls out cycle development and is further broken down in(1) protcols / documentation, (2)execution and (3) reports. I break out each of these per piece of equipment as needed and picked up during the interactive planning session.

Can anyone telll me what is the level a WBS needs to go to, ie. what exactly should be captured in a WBS. My understanding is it should be high level and each task cpatured at activity level. Your WBS should not cover Level 3 or Level 4 activities?

Would be grateful to get feedback here

Thanks,

Mike

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  1. 0
    Patrick Weaver ·
    #1

    Agree Mike!  The WBS Work

    Agree Mike!  The WBS Work Packages are the lowest management level defining a deliverable of some type.  Each Work Package devolves into many schedule activities that define how the work needed to create the deliverable will be accomplished. For more on this see:  http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/WhitePapers/WP1011_WBS.pdf

    The ‘size’ of the work package is less important than it representing a self contained block of work that is assigned to a manager to manage, ether stand alone or as part of a control account.

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  2. 0
    Mike Melay ·
    #2

    Thanks for the feedback

    Thanks for the feedback Patrick - much appreciated

    Mike

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  3. 0
    Dennis Hanks ·
    #3

    Mike: For me it is at

    Mike: For me it is at whatever level you can/should collect costs (data).  It is conceivable, though not practical/realistic, to take a WBS down to the individual craftsman/crew.  In reality, it is the ability of the estimator to estimate to a proscribed level of detail that will determine the granularity of the WBS.  The estimator will collect his quantities in accordance with the existing WBS.  In my world, my little portion of it, the WBS is usually geographic - project, phase, building/structure, craft/discipline, level, quadrant, etc.  The cost accounts should reflect this.  The CBS should map to the WBS.

    There is no reason to collect (code) data below the level of the current estimate.  This level will change with project maturity.  The level of the WBS depends on where you are in the project chain/process.

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  4. 0
    Raymund de Laza ·
    #4

    WBS is simply similar to a

    WBS is simply similar to a Folders.

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