Work Breakdown Structures: The Foundation for Project Management Excellence Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a readable book about a difficult subject, the creation and, especially, the use of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), for planning and managing a project. It is written for professional project managers but is approachable by any non-professional with a personal or work-related project. The authors are among the world's experts on the WBS since they led the Project Management Institute (PMI) team that developed the official Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures - Second Edition. The book serves as a user's manual that shows how the official Standard can be applied in every day practice. The key word for this book is practicality.

The WBS is the basis for all project management tools and procedures. Accordingly the book provides insights into the whole range of project management practice. It initially provides an overview of what a WBS is, how to recognize whether a specific WBS is appropriate for any given project, and how to create a WBS using ground-up planning, templates, or standards. It then provides in-depth explanations of the practical use of the WBS in the major project management knowledge areas of scope, time, cost, quality, communication and risk management.

I particularly like chapters 3 and 4 on initiating a project by using the WBS to define the project scope.This discussion really brings together the integrated use of all of the scope tools, e.g., Project Charter, Scope Statement, Statements of Work (SOW), WBS Dictionary, Scope Baseline, Acceptance Criteria) in a way that, I suspect, practitioners rarely appreciate.A side effect of this discussion is to clarify how each of the other deliverables is used and individually adds value to the project management process.

The authors introduce a valuable new concept, the "Scope Relationship Diagram" which is both a way for thinking about dependencies in the WBS as well as a very useful technique for communicating dependencies across WBS hierarchy levels in an intuitive visual way.It should be especially useful in the context of horizon planning where future tasks are not yet defined in the same detail as early tasks.Very nice!

The informal writing style makes the subject matter much more understandable than does the more formal and proscriptive style that is usually used to describe the WBS. The authors often use the form of a dialog with the reader: "This is Eric speaking...This is Rob...". This style defuses some of the authoritarian atmosphere surrounding WBS discussions and makes it a more appealing tool.The concepts presented in each chapter are illustrated by repeated use of a house metaphor as a practical example of applying the concepts presented to the planning and execution of a hypothetical new home construction project. Each chapter provides references and review questions with answers and the appendix provides examples of key deliverables.

I strongly recommend the book.

(Full disclosure: This reviewer worked with the book's authors during the development of the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures - Second Edition but was not involved in writing this book.)

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Product Description:
Understand and apply new concepts regarding Work Breakdown Structures
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) has emerged as a foundational concept and tool in Project Management. It is an enabler that ensures clear definition and communication of project scope while performing a critical role as a monitoring and controlling tool. Created by the three experts who led the development of PMI's Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures, Second Edition, this much-needed text expands on what the standard covers and describes how to go about successfully implementing the WBS within the project life cycle, from initiation and planning through project closeout.
Filling the gap in the literature on the WBS, Work Breakdown Structures: The Foundation for Project Management Excellence gives the reader an understanding of:

The background and key concepts of the WBS

WBS core characteristics, decomposition, representations, and tools

Project initiation and the WBS, including contracts, agreements, and Statements of Work (SOW)

Deliverable-based and activity-based management

Using the WBS as a basis for procurement and financial planning

Quality, risk, resource, and communication planning with the WBS

The WBS in the executing, monitoring, and controlling phases

New concepts regarding the representation of project and program scope

Verifying project closeout with the WBS

Using a real-life project as an example throughout the book, the authors show how the WBS first serves to document and collect information during the initiating and planning phases of a project. Then, during the executing phase, the authors demonstrate how the WBS transitions to an active role of project decision-support, serving as a reference and a source for control and measurement.

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