WBS - Work Breakdown Structure

Starting to write the business case for my thesis now. As now and like before any project one needs to define a WBS (work breakdown Structure) before the gantt chart to ascertain the project activities and scope. Here is a quick breakdown, no pun intended, of what is involved..

WBS - The list of tasks and subtasks defined for a project. This list is done in a hierarchical fashion, grouping sets of related tasks under a common parent task.

Purpose - to document the scope of a project.
Its hierarchical arrangement allows for easy identification of the terminal elements (the actual items to be done in a project). Being an exhaustive document of the project scope, the WBS serves as the basis (indeed, the backbone) for much of project planning. All the work to be done in a project must trace its origin from one or more WBS entries.

How to - Project management is not about performing the work, but rather more concerned about monitoring the work, so a good maxim to follow in preparing the WBS is to go to just enough detail to allow a piece of work to assigned to a resource, and then the status monitored.

An example of a work breakdown for painting a room (activity-oriented) is, to state the obvious:

1. Prepare materials

1.1Buy paint

1.2Buy a ladder

1.3 Buy brushes/rollers

1.4 Buy wallpaper remover

2 Prepare room
2.1 Remove old wallpaper
2.2 Remove detachable decorations
2.3 Cover floor with old newspapers
2.4 Cover electrical outlets/switches with tape
2.5 Cover furniture with sheets

3 Paint the room

4 Clean up the room
4.1 Dispose or store left over paint
4.2 Clean brushes/rollers
4.3 Dispose of old newspapers
4.4 Remove covers