In the previous post, I advised on the failure to properly define tasks and alerted you to the subtleties in effort required in defining tasks for projects as opposed to tasks for an ongoing business process. On this occasion, I will focus on the formal process for task definition through the decomposition of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
Decomposition of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The WBS process, the focus of our inquiry for task definition, has inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs. Accordingly, the inputs to the WBS process include a scope management plan, project scope statement, and requirements documentation. Then, you must consider environmental factors that can impact the WBS process, organizational process assets, e.g., policies, procedures, and templates. Valuable assets in the effort, your firm may possess, are project files from previous projects and lessons learned from previous projects.
WBS tools and techniques for expressing the deliverable(s) into an obvious framework are expert judgment and decomposition. You can employ the use of an expert in task definition, an intuitive point, so here we elaborate on Project Management Institute’s (PMI) decomposition tool:
5.4.2.2 DECOMPOSITION
Decomposition is a technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts, leading to work packages. The work package (a collection of related tasks) is the work defined at the lowest level of the WBS for which cost and duration can be estimated and managed. The level of decomposition is often guided by the degree of control needed to effectively manage the project. The level of detail for work packages will vary with the size and complexity of the project. Decomposition of the total project work into work packages generally involves the following activities:
- Identifying and analyzing the deliverables and related work,
- Structuring and organizing the WBS,
- Decomposing the upper WBS levels into lower-level detailed components,
- Developing and assigning identification codes to the WBS components, and
- Verifying that the degree of decomposition of the deliverables is appropriate
–Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK,) 6th Edition
Inclusive of the WBS and the Work Packages (remember, a collection of tasks,) the WBS process outputs other parts of a Scope baseline, i.e., scope statement, planning package and WBS dictionary, and updates to other project documentation such as assumptions log and requirements documentation.
–Richard Thomas
