project wbs

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PMC 610 – Project Planning and Estimating

Weeks 4, 5

Project Planning

The fundamental mission of a project is to create value for the client, by way of meeting the

specifications for the deliverable of the project, which in turn will satisfy a specific strategic objective

of the enterprise. The planning documents of the project include the specifics of crafting the

deliverable itself, as well as proactive guidelines for involving the stakeholders in the decision

processes of the project.

Planning the project will begin with a clear understanding of the client’s strategic and financial

objectives. Then, on the basis of that information, and in the light of historical data from similar

projects, estimates will be made for the amount of resources required for the project, the total cost of

the project, the total duration of the project, and risks that might impact the implementation and

success of the project.

The skeletal framework for project plans will be provided by a hierarchical structure, which is called

the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Although the WBS can be developed using activities or

resources, the most logical method for developing the WBS is the deliverable basis.

Reading Assignments

 Integrated Project Planning, Chapter 5, Work Breakdown Structure  Files posted with this learning module

Reference Material

 A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), PMI, 2013  Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structure, PMI, 2006  Project Stakeholder Management, by Lund and Jepsen, 2014  Project Management Communication Tools, by Dow and Taylor, 2015

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Week 4 Assignments

Individual Assignment 4I – Stakeholder List According to PMBOK (PMI, 2013), project stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.

Vandelay Industries is going to host a “Q-school” qualifying golf tournament in Asheville, NC at the Grove Park Inn. This Q-School tournament will be one of the feeder tournaments of the PGA’s Web.com Tour.

Develop a list of at least 30 stakeholders for the golf tournament:

 List only specific, relevant, and meaningful, stakeholders (no generic, frivolous, or fictitious,

stakeholders)  Be sure to include the PM team!  Make an educated guess for the nature of the impact of each stakeholder on the project. Be

specific on the nature, ie: interest in the project, what and how they affect the project, level of impact

 Divide the stakeholder list into 5-7categories  Make an educated guess for the overall impact of each category on the project. Be

clear and specific on the nature and level of impact. Post your assignment to the 4I dropbox. Week 5 Assignments Team Assignment 5Ta – Stakeholder Communications Use your stakeholder lists developed last week as the starting point of this assignment. Discuss the different stakeholders you came up with individually and use them for this team assignment. Develop a communication plan matrix for each stakeholder category. For each category specify:

 Whether the information should regard:  Intended use (strategic objective of the project)  Impact of the deliverable on economy, environment, people, etc.  Cost of project  Duration of project  Quality of project  Other issues

 Whether the information should be detailed or summarized (and why)  Who should present/own the information (team members, the project manager, chief

budget officer, etc.)  The medium of transmission (face to face, phone, email, meeting, etc.)  The frequency of transmission

Do not present generalities, give specifics. Post this assignment to the 5Ta dropbox.

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Team Assignment 5Tb – Develop a Work Breakdown Structure For this part of the assignment, you will be creating a WBS and estimating cost, schedule, and identifying major risks. I suggest you use Excel for the assignment. On the first tab, you can place your write up in a text box, create your WBS on another worksheet tab, other sheets for the cost, schedule, and risk assessment. Using Excel will make organization easy, and any calculations automatic. If you want to create your WBS graphic in another program, you can do that and paste it into your spreadsheet. Remember, you can add textboxes in Excel worksheets. Color code your tabs and remember to use formatting to draw my attention to your answers. If I have to “search all over” for what I’m looking for, you haven’t created your deliverable well. Think about how a board room boss, or your project sponsor, would want to see this information.

a. Develop a WBS for the golf tournament project

 The deliverable elements you created in 2T should be refined to make up the “level one” of your WBS (the “Q-school golf tournament” is level zero)  Divide each major deliverable element into seven-nine lower elements known as “work

packages”  Present your WBS graphically  Maintain a reasonable consistency in the level of detail of the lowest level elements. Not

all branches need to go to the same level, but the significance of the lowest-level items should be similar. An example of this inconsistency is where one of the lowest level elements describes a vendor selection, while another lowest level element describes game day grass cutting.

 Use number notation, e.g. 1.2.5, to highlight the lineage of each WBS element. Add a prefix of W to all element numbers.

b. Initial Estimates of Cost

 Provide an educated guess for the cost of each of the work packages (the lowest level of the WBS).  Roll up these elemental costs to determine the overall cost for each of the major elements

(level one elements)  Roll the cost of the major elements to determine the cost of the total project.

c. Initial Estimates of Schedule

 Make an educated guess for the duration of each of the work packages (elements of the lowest level of the WBS)

d. Identify the risks for the major deliverables (1-2 risks for each level-one deliverable)

 List only those occurrences that are out of the control of the project team. For example, do not list possible non-compliance in the work of a vendor

I will look for evidence of a logical process in developing the WBS and corresponding estimates…not necessarily for the most technically-accurate descriptions and precise estimates…of the project components. Post this assignment to the 5Tb dropbox.