Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Week 6
LEVEL DESCRIPTION
1 Total Program Usually specified by the
2 Project(s) client and managed the
project manager.
3 Task(s)
4 Usually specified Subtask(s)
by the functional
5 manager(s). Work Package(s)
6 Level of Effort
Most common type: Six-Level Indented Structure
Gozinto Chart for a Toy Bus
A WBS with more Breadth
The Work Breakdown Structure - 4
• Summary: The WBS is an important document and
can be tailored for use in a number of different ways
– It may illustrate how each piece contributes to the project in
terms of performance, responsibility, schedule, and budget
– It may list the vendors or subcontractors associated with
specific tasks
– It may serve as the basis for cost or schedule estimates
– It may be used to document that all parties have signed off
on their various commitments to the project
The Work Breakdown Structure
Steps for designing and using the WBS:
1. Using the action plan, list the task breakdown in successively
finer levels of detail. Continue until all meaningful tasks or
work packages have been identified.
2. For each such work package, identify the data relevant to the
WBS: personnel and organizations responsible for each task.
3. All work package information should be reviewed with the
individuals or organizations who have responsibility for doing
or supporting the work to verify the accuracy of the WBS
WBS Linear Responsibility Chart
Simplified Linear Responsibility Chart
In-class Group Exercise
Notation:
[Task name, expected time, variance]
Critical Path Calculation
To find the critical path:
Notes:
TE
a 4m b •
•
a is the optimistic estimate
b is the pessimistic estimate
6 • m is an estimate of the mode
• TE is a calculation of the
b a
2 mean
2
• σ2 is the variance; a
6 representation of the
uncertainty
• σ is the standard deviation
2
The Results
Uncertainty of Project
Completion Time
• Assume activities are statistically
independent
– is this reasonable?
• The variance of a set of activities is the sum
of the individual variances
• We are most interested in variances along
the critical path!
Fun With Statistics!
• What is the probability of completing a
project on time, given a measure of variance
and a critical path?
• We can answer that by calculating Z (# of
standard deviations) as follows:
Z = (D - ) /
2
Z
(D )
50 43
7
1.22
2
33 5.745
Example - 2.
• As D => μ, Z => 0
• When Z = 0, probability of on-time completion is
50%
• Implication?
– If you want a high probability of being on time, you
need some slack in the schedule!
• What about non-critical paths?
– Any path that has low slack and significant variance is
a potential trouble spot.
Implications - 2.