Creating Work Breakdown Structure

product-oriented family tree composed of hardware, software, services, data, and facilities. The family tree results from systems engineering efforts during the acquisition of a defense materiel item.” [2]

Practice standard for Work Breakdown Structure defines WBS as follows: “A

Deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objective and create the required deliverables.” [4] At the same time under the term outcome it is understood a verifiable product, output or service, which have to be produced to complete a process, phase or project.

The authors of the definitions are in agreement when claiming that WBS is not an action-oriented decomposition, it does not even include any activities since activities are totally included in work packages at the lowest level of WBS. On the other hand they agree on the fact that it involves product decomposition into subproducts and further into the lowest

level of detail required.

It is possible to state that the definition given by SPŘ in the Czech Republic is not in disagreement with the quoted definitions by DOD and PMI, therefore it can be used in the field of the project management of the Czech Republic.

3. Creating Work Breakdown Structure

The project life cycle involves the phases of initialization, planning, implementation and terminating of the project. The planning phase is opened by creating WBS that is the foundation for:

- managing the costs of the project implementation;

- identification of activities and creating an implementation schedule;

- determination of the resource requirements necessary for the project implementation;

- defining responsibility and

involvement in the project implementation;

- quality management of the final deliverable for a customer;

- managing changes in the course of project planning and project implementation.

The basic foundation for creating WBS is a clearly formulated objective of the project (WHAT is to be delivered to a customer, UNTIL WHEN and FOR HOW MUCH). The top (1 level) of WBS is composed of a definition of delivery item for a customer (WHAT is to be delivered to a customer – see example in Figure 1).

The second level of WBS usually contains more precise definition of a delivery item

for a customer in a way that a customer defined the item (for the example see

1 (1 level) Weapon system

Figure 1: Project deliverable – top level of WBS

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Figure 2).

The following hierarchical breakdown is a definition of subproducts, which will be necessary to create (produce) so that a product at the second level is created. When creating the second level the implementation team with a project manager in charge has to observe the so called 100 % rule. This obligatory rule binds WBS creators to define everything that is to be completed (delivered) so that a product at a higher level is produced

(delivered). It represents a return check whether the project team identified everything that is to be completed in order to attain a higher level of WBS. Figure 2 illustrates a primary violation of the 100 % rule because the main product of the second level, which is “project management”, is missing here. Figure 3 shows the right observance of the 100 % rule [4].

Presenting the project management as a deliverable (product) plays a certain role in WBS, since the project management is delivered to a project customer, and there are costs required to build it. The project management includes work of a project manager and project team, which is not directly related to creation of further deliverables (products), however, it is necessary to be executed in order to produce a final deliverable (achieve the project objective).

When accomplishing the identification of the products at a certain level, the project team together with the project manager decides whether the performed breakdown is sufficient for the description of the products (subproducts). The level of details of the decomposition is related to experience and capabilities of the project

team and project manager to control their production from the perspective of restrictive project criteria (time, costs, resources, risks), customer defined criteria (acceptance criteria), together with achieving the required quality of the final deliverable, the project as a whole and the project management (for the example see Figure 4).

Providing that the project manager decides that the product decomposition is detailed enough for managing the implementation and producing further documents in the course of planning, it is possible to terminate the product decomposition in terms of subproducts decomposition into work packages. Work packages represent a set of activities to be accomplished in order to create the products (to observe the 100 point rule). 1 Weapon system 1.1 Automatic rifle 1.2 Sight 1.3 Ammunition 1.4 Handbook

Figure 2: Project deliverable decomposition to the products – 2 level of WBS

Source: own processing

1 Weapon system 1.1 Automatic rifle 1.2 Sight 1.3 Ammunition 1.4 Handbook 1.5 PM

Figure 3: Right project deliverable decomposition to the products – 1-2 level of WBS

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1.1.1 Barrel 1.2.1 Night sight 1.3.1 Shall with tracer 1.4.1 ………..

1.1.2 Magazine 1.2.2 Day sight 1.3.2 ………..

1.1.3 Bolt assist mechanism 1.2.3 …………. 1.1.4 …………

4. How does Work Breakdown