Questions for Project WBS

Brandon Rice, Daniela Bremnor, Mario Martin

University of Maryland Global Campus

IFSM 438

Professor Paul Tomaka

January 31, 2023

Does the Project Schedule include everything in your team's charter and all deliverables? If the WBS includes tasks that were not part of the Project Charter, explain how the team determined the additional tasks were necessary.

The Project Schedule is the backbone of any project as it outlines the entire scope of work to be performed, along with the timeline and resources required for each of those tasks. It is crucial that the team uses the Project Schedule to reflect all the project objectives, goals, and milestones as defined in the charter. This ensures that all stakeholders are aware and can keep track of what is expected and when. The Project Schedule should also reflect any updates or changes made to the charter along the way to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the project stays on track. A well-structured Project Schedule can help to avoid misunderstandings and minimize the risk of project failure.

Does the WBS include project management tasks necessary to manage the project?

The WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) includes the major project management tasks necessary to manage the project effectively. This includes tasks such as creating a project schedule, meeting with stakeholders, monitoring progress, and making necessary adjustments. By including these tasks in the WBS, the project manager can ensure that the project is well-managed and that the team is able to deliver the project on time and within budget.

Explain the top-down and bottom-up approaches to building a WBS. Which approach did the team decide to use and why did they make that decision?

The top-down approach states the biggest tasks or group and then breaks it down (Simplilearn, 2023). Those are the high-level actions to accomplish the project. The bottom-up approach picks a task that can be easily done and completes it. This is more effective for focusing on details and brainstorming. The team utilized both approaches while building the WBS. One team member began by identifying the largest tasks or high-level actions, the remaining team members identified the tasks that fell within the largest tasks (the bottom-up approach).

Building the WBS as an outline in Word or Excel instead of Project can help team members visualize the order of the tasks and how the tasks might decompose into lower levels. Did the team build an outline outside of Project? If you only used Project, did the team need to rearrange tasks while building the WBS?

The team complete the initial outline in Microsoft Excel. The goal was to establish clear project objectives that cannot be interpreted in deferent ways (Watts, 2014). Tasks were grouped together in work packages; Excel made it easier to rearrange them and organize subtasks. These work packages were then plugged into a Microsoft Project document and by then the need to rearrange tasks were very minimal.

Did the team approach the WBS graphically (like an organization chart) or tabularly (like a list or table), or something else? Why?

During part two of this assignment, the team had a tabular approach to the WBS while using Microsoft Excel to create the first draft. The team saw Microsoft Excel as the perfect tool for organization and for setting a foundation without too many complications. Approaching the first draft with the tabular format allowed the team to easily build a solid blueprint of which tasks and subtasks were going to be incorporated in the final WBS.

Did the team work together to determine the major tasks or was only one team member responsible for that? How well did it work?

Initially, one team member determined the major tasks. This team member’s responsibility was to extract the key tasks from the selected project charter meanwhile incorporating the mandatory tasks listed in the rubric. Once a draft was created, the remaining team members all put a considerable amount of effort in deciding which tasks could be added, removed, or reworded. With a collective input from everyone, the team eventually produced a final Excel draft that contained all the major tasks and subtasks and a much higher quality final product than what we began with.

ReferencesSimplilearn. (2023, January 27). WBS Approach in Project Management. Retrieved from Simplilearn.com: https://www.simplilearn.com/wbs-approach-in-project-management-articleWatts, A. (2014). Project Management. Retrieved from BCcampus Victoria, B.C.: file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Project-Management-2nd-Edition-1665530399.pdf