When is work decomposition performed

That would require an enormous amount of administrative labor for you and for your team members. At the other end of the scale, you might not want to have a single work project for the whole widget construction deliverable because you have different departments involved. In this situation, it would make more sense to have the sourcing of the widget components listed as Phase 1, the widget assembly as Phase 2, and the widget Quality Assurance inspection as Phase 3.

This decreases efficiency and negatively impacts team morale. This is one reason you may want to have them involved in creating the WBS — especially since they may have additional insight into the most logical way to group various tasks.

Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Underneath it, link each deliverable and major task. Assign each deliverable a code — either a letter or a number. Every task item and work package that is listed underneath the deliverable will contain this code as the first part of its own code. When the WBS is completed, it should contain every work package created during the decomposition phase, with a code reflecting the hierarchy.

Each work package should have its own code, budget, and estimated duration. If you followed part three of this series, you will have decomposed each deliverable on its own sheet of paper. Once the fixtures are determined, the associated Planning Package becomes a Work Package. This is accomplished by defining Control Accounts. In the House Project, the project manager decides that the project risks associated with using subcontractors can be better managed if the project reports performance for each subcontractor.

To monitor their performance, Elements 3. However, the remaining work in Elements 1. To assist with the monitoring and reporting, project management information tools are used to collect, analyze and report information at any Element within the WBS.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. What is a Work Breakdown Structure? Gather Critical Documents Gather critical project documents. Identify Key Team Members Identify the appropriate project team members. Analyze the documents and identify the deliverables. Decompose Breakdown Elements Begin the process of breaking the Level 1 deliverables into unique lower Level deliverables. Continue breaking down the work until the work covered in each Element is managed by a single individual or organization.

Ensure that all Elements are mutually exclusive. Ask the question, would any additional decomposition make the project more manageable?