Work Breakdown Structure – Schedule and Budget
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical decomposition of a project into the modules, work, activities and tasks required to perform for completing the project. The WBS can be specified in the tabular form as well as graphical representation. The WBS is utilized to not only determine and manage the schedule and budget (cost) of the project, but also facilitates the project manager to determine the scope of the project along with human resources required to complete the project. As specified above once the project is decomposed into the smaller units of work (also called work packages), the project manager can assign three (3) factors to the work packages. For instance, the project manager can easily identify the number of human resources required to complete the particular task (or work package), the time required to complete the particular task, and the cost required to complete the task (Trainer, 2010).
Once the project is decomposed and the WBS is developed, it can be utilized to identify the total time required to complete the project. In this regard, the project manager is required to develop Gantt chart and Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) based on the decomposition of the project (that is WBS). The identified work packages are sequenced to identify the critical path that is the total time required to complete the project. Once the time and human resources are assigned to the work packages, the cost of the work package can easily be estimated by the rate per hour of the human resource multiplied with the time required to complete the particular task. Hence, it can be stated that the WBS can be utilized as a baseline for estimating the project schedule and cost.
Work Breakdown Structure – Regency Hotel Website
The following table represents the tabular form of the work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project of the Regency Hotel website. The following tabular form of the WBS contains the activities and tasks at the fourth level to which we can allocate the time, human resources and cost. The left side of the table contains unique code of each of the phase, deliverables, activities and tasks. Moreover, these codes are also specified the level of the activity. For instance, the “Project Initiation” phase of the project management is at the second level, the “Project Charter” deliverable is at the third (3rd) level, whereas, the activities / tasks required performing for completing the project deliverable. Moreover, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Gantt chart (activities / tasks) are required to develop in order to produce the “Project Plan” deliverable of the project (Brotherton, Fried and Norman, 2008).
Regency Hotel Website
Project Initiation
Project Charter
Feasibility Report
Job Description
Cost benefit Analysis
Cost Estimation
Benefits Estimation
Requirement Gathering
Meetings
Focused Groups
Interviews
Prototyping
Project Planning
Project Plan
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
Critical Path Analysis (CPA)
Gantt Chart
Quality Plan
Quality Assurance
Quality Control
Risk Management Plan
Risk Identification
Risk Mitigation
Risk Avoid, Transfer, Accept and Mitigate
Execution
Research and Development
Interface Development
Wire frame
Interface layout
Graphical User Interface
Prototype
Development
Virtual Functionalities
Deployment
Project Closing
Lesson Learnt
Signoff
The detailed work breakdown structure of the website project is given-above in the tabular form. However, the following figure provides an idea about the graphical representation of the WBS. It is pertinent to mention here that the following figure does not represent a complete phases, activities and tasks of the project for development of the Regency Hotel’s website. And this is because of the space and view-ability (Gardiner, 2005).
Sample Graphical Representation of the Work Breakdown Structure – Regency Hotel Website
References
Brotherton, S. A., Fried R. T., and Norman, E. S. (2008). Applying the Work Breakdown Structure to the Project Management Lifecycle. PMI Global Congress Proceedings
Gardiner, P. D. (2005). Project Management – A Strategic Planning Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp 244 – 283
Trainer, A. (2010). What is Product Breakdown Structure. Retrieved from: http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/free-resources/what-is-product-breakdown-structure-pbs/
