Project Management - How to: Create a Great WBS

This course is a result of 25 years of consulting project management experience and the creation of Work Breakdown Structures for multiple projects.

This course will start with a discussion of work breakdown structures and work packages. We will discuss the optimal size of the work packages as well as various levels of the work breakdown structures. You will also learn about the relationship between the numbering system of the WBS elements and their levels within the work breakdown structures.

We will then talk about different ways of work breakdown structure decomposition, including the generic way (following typical project management phases of initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control and closeout), IT and software development (concept, requirements, design, development, testing, release project management, business analysis) and Agile (concept, sprint 1, sprint 2, sprint 3 … system testing, closeout).

We will then discuss the proper naming of work breakdown structure work packages using the “Verb + Noun Construct” and examine a simple WBS created for the “Room Painting” project.

Later we will have a discussion about the recommended quotas for project management time on a given project, including key tasks performed by project managers during the initiation, planning, execution and closeout phases.

In addition, you will be supplied with multiple examples of generic, IT/software development and Agile WBS approach as well as several WBS “cheat sheets”.