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Introduction to Planning
WBS / PBS / PFD

WBS slides modified from originals by Elke Duncker with

additional PRINCE2 material
Project Management Planning

Work Breakdown Structures

(WBS)
 Statement of Work

• Statement of Work (SOW) is ...

“a narrative description of the work to be accomplished.
It includes the objectives of the project, a brief
description of the work, the funding constraint if one
exists, and the specifications and schedule. The
schedule is a ‘gross schedule’ and includes such things
as
• Start date
• End date
• Major milestones
• Written reports”
Kerzner (2008)
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 Statement of Work

• Statement of Work (SOW) is ...

... sometimes referred to as a “Task statement”

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 Statement of Work

If the project is put out to tender, the Statement

of Work (with the funding constraints removed)
becomes an important part of the tender for
which suppliers are bidding

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 Statement of Work

• In fact, there is a serious danger that an imprecise or

ambiguous Statement of Work may cause the
supplier and the customer to misunderstand what is
required. It may be a good idea for the supplier to
send a fact-finding team to the (potential) customer

• It is essential that all discrepancies between the

client’s understanding of the SOW and the supplier’s
understanding are uncovered and resolved

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 Statement of Work

• A supplier may negotiate with the client, resulting in changes

to the Statement of Work
• After contract is signed, the Statement of Work becomes the
Contract Statement of Work (CSOW)
• Neither side has authority to change the CSOW without the
agreement of the other

• Means a formal Change Control Process usually with a Change

Control Board (CCB) with formal meetings, say once a month
(depends on the project context)

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 Work Breakdown Structures

One of the first tasks of the Project Manager is to

produce a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) describing
the whole project

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 Work Breakdown Structures

Work breakdown is …
… a way of breaking the
whole project down into manageable chunks

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 Work breakdown
• The idea of a WBS came from the American
Department of Defense, which insisted that all its
projects should be organised this way

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Example of a High-Level WBS

Image extracted from Systems Engineering Fundamentals.

Defense Acquisition University Press, 2001
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 Why is a WBS Needed?
“The successful accomplishment of both
contract and corporate objectives requires a
plan that defines all effort to be expended,
assigns responsibility to a specifically
identified organisational element, and
establishes schedules and budgets for the
accomplishment of the work”
Kerzner (2008) p396

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 WBS
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a product-oriented family tree
subdivision of the hardware, services, and data required to produce the end
product

The WBS is structured in accordance with the way the work will be performed
and reflects the way in which project costs and data will be summarized and
eventually reported

Preparation of the WBS also considers other areas that require structured
data, such as scheduling, configuration management, contract funding, and
technical performance parameters

(Kerzner, 2017, p.365)

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 Purposes of a WBS
The WBS is the single most important element because it provides a
common framework from which:

• The total program can be described as a summation of subdivided

elements
• Planning can be performed
• Costs and budgets can be established
• Time, cost, and performance can be tracked
• Objectives can be linked to company resources in a logical manner
• Schedules and status-reporting procedures can be established
• Network construction and control planning can be initiated
(Kerzner,
• The responsibility assignments for each element can2017, p.365)
be established

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 WBS

In other words:
• Organises / provides the basis for planning and
scheduling / monitoring progress
• assigns responsibilities to individuals/groups
• defines milestones
• accurately estimates cost
• accurately estimates time
• accurately estimates risk
• helps explain the project to the stakeholders

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 AoA/AoN network
Durations & schedules

Organisation Organisation chart

Cost flow objective

Costing
WBS network
(identifies
the tasks)
Accountability Work package matrix

Management Interlocked objective

coordination network
Risk Decision tree
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 WBS

• A good WBS can determine a project’s success

• The idea is that the component parts should be
manageable – independent – integrateable –
measurable in terms of progress

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 Components of the WBS
• The components should be small enough, in terms of
duration.
• What counts as “small enough” when it comes to
chunks? A rule is needed.

• Maybe “don’t consider anything that would take less than

2 weeks to complete”.
• Maybe “don’t consider anything that would take less than
8 person-hours, or more than 80 person-hours, to
complete”
• Maybe “make the tasks between 1 and 8 weeks long”

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 The 100% rule
• The original statement-of-work should cover 100%
of the tasks that need to be done

• So the WBS contains 100% of what is in the project

scope

• What if the WBS alters and then contains 110% of

what is in the agreed project scope?…...

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 The 100% rule

scope creep!

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 Formal change control
• Change management, that controls both
internally-generated and customer-driven
changes in the scope of projects
• Any update to the WBS (other than
elaboration of details) should require
formal change control
• Anything else is scope creep

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 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• This is a hierarchical tree structure

• The box at the top is the whole project
• The boxes in the layer below are (usually) the deliverables
• The boxes in the levels below are usually activities that
create the deliverables
• Deliverables and tasks belong in a WBS. However, tasks
are the primary focus in a WBS
• Tasks start with a verb (Install component x, Test
component x, etc.)

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- A WBS is a hierarchy
- Divides up the Scope
- Need to identify the terminal elements in some way

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 WBS

• Going up the WBS, the tasks obviously get longer

(in terms of person-hours)
• The reporting structures also get more complex
– For a task in the lowermost layer, a simple
report “the task is now completed” will
probably have to do
– For higher level tasks, a report detailing
resources used, problems encountered, etc., is
necessary

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 WBS

Consider the levels, the top three levels are

sometimes treated as “managerial levels”
• Level 1 – total programme
• Level 2 – project
• Level 3 – task

The bottom three levels are sometimes treated as

“technical levels”
• Level 4 – subtask
• Level 5 – work package
• Level 6 – level of effort
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 Task Analysis
Each task should have:
• a description
• a duration
• the methods to carry it out
• the resources required (hardware, software,
time and budget)
• a person or persons to do it
• the skills required

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 Why a WBS is more than a “to do” list

• It can be a medium that brings about buy-in from

stakeholders and team members
• It can make the team’s efforts visible, and indicate
ownership of tasks
• It can provide data for performance measurement
• If the Project Manager does treat it as just a “to do”
list, and elaborates it so that that is its chief
purpose, this will lead to micro-management, which
will probably antagonise the team
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 Deliverables

• Deliverable: “something that can be provided as the

product of development”
• “A deliverable is any tangible outcome that is
produced by the project. These can be documents,
plans, computer systems, buildings, aircraft, etc.”
• “Any (work) product that must be delivered to
someone other that the (work) product’s author”
• “A product, outcome or output from a project, e.g. a
project report”
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WBS – Product or Process?

http://www.hyperthot.com/pm_wbs_concepts
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Project Management Planning
using PRINCE2:

Product Breakdown Structures

and
Product Flow Diagrams
 Techniques
PRINCE2 intends organizations should integrate
their existing organizational practices with
PRINCE2 and so only includes two techniques:
– Product-based planning (PBP)
– Quality review techniques

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 Product-based Planning (PBP)
PBP focuses on deliverables:
• Specialist products
(what is being developed: such as the software and user manuals)

• Management products
(such as project management and quality management deliverables)

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 PBP Key diagrams
• Product breakdown structures (PBSs) identify
the set of products required
• Product flow diagrams (PFDs) show the
dependencies amongst products and the
sequence in which they must be developed

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 PBP example
My New Kitchen Scenario

• My old Kitchen desperately needs replacing

• The project is to dismantle the existing kitchen, and assemble a new kitchen in
its place
• The old kitchen has some materials that may be re-used. In dismantling the
kitchen the specialist (builder) must decide which materials are to be disposed
of and which may be re-used, albeit after some further restoration. Replacement
materials must then be identified and ordered from the Kitchen Company
• New units and appliances will also be needed, and a list of required materials
and required units and appliances is to be made as the kitchen is dismantled
• The kitchen site must also be prepared before the new kitchen can be
assembled

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 PBS for kitchen scenario
Completed
new kitchen

1 2 3 4
Old Dismantled New Assembled
kitchen kitchen requirements new kitchen

2.1 2.2 4.1 4.2

Disposable Reusable New Restored
materials materials materials materials

3.1 3.2 3.3 4.1.1 4.1.3

Kitchen Other new materials New units and New units and Other
measurements requirements appliances list appliances new materials
4.1.2
Prepared
surfaces
BIS4408 36
 1
Old
kitchen
3.2
2.1 New materials 2.2
Disposable requirements Reusable
materials materials
3.1
Kitchen 4.2
measurements Restored
materials

3.3
New units and
appliances list
4.1.3
4.1.1 4.1.2 Other new
New units and Prepared materials
appliances surfaces Specialist PFD for my new kitchen

Completed
new kitchen
37
 Further Reading
Discusses the differences between a WBS and a PBS

• https://www.apm.org.uk/sites/default/files/Use%20of%20Product%20Breakdown%
20Structures%20and%20Work%20Breakdown%20Structures_0.pdf

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Questions?

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