Strategy Execution - Work Breakdown Structure problems and how to solve them.
- 1. STRUCTURE PROBLEMS AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM BUILD SKILL SETS. CHANGE MINDSETS. WWW.STRATEGYEX.CO.UK
- 2. WHAT IS THE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS) ? • This is where you map out in detail what you are going to be doing. It lists all the task involved in the project and gives you a very visual understanding of the scale of the work ahead. • It’s very easy to spend a morning plotting out your WBS and still find that you’ve got nothing usable at the end of it. Here are 5 WBS creation problems and what you can do to make sure they don’t stop you producing a
- 3. 1. NOT KNOWING WHEN TO STOP • It’s important to stop working on your WBS when it gets to a suitable level. The activities described on it should feel as if they would last about a week, maybe longer if your project is running over a year or more. • Conversely, you don’t want to stop before you get to that level. Documenting a WBS at too high a level will mean you lack the information required to put together your project schedule.
- 4. HOW TO OVERCOME IT • The WBS is complete when the activities described on it are detailed enough to let you schedule, budget and delegate the work. Stop when you get to that level. • Any more detail is a waste of time. • Any less detail and you won’t be able to do the next step in the project planning process which is taking the information from here and building out your schedule
- 5. 2. DEALING WITH GROUP DYNAMICS • Creating the WBS is a team activity. • You must use strong facilitation skills to keep the discussion on track and everyone participating. • It can be all too easy for a quieter member of the team’s voice to be lost in this crucial discussion.
- 6. HOW TO OVERCOME IT • If you feel as if you cannot facilitate the group and take part representing the function of project management, then consider bringing someone else in to keep the meeting participants on a path that doesn’t involve too much uncomfortable conflict.
- 7. 3. DISCUSSING THE SEQUENCE • The WBS is a graphical representation of the activities required on a project. • It informs the project schedule but it is NOT the project schedule. • The process of putting the WBS together can derail when the conversation turns to discussing what is going to happen when.
- 8. HOW TO OVERCOME IT • Be strict with your facilitation! • Stop all discussions about timings as they arise and deal with the scheduling later.
- 9. 4. TALKING ABOUT DELIVERABLES • The WBS is not a list of deliverables. Much of what you do will generate a deliverable. • The process of coming up with the WBS is all about the work that needs to be done. • Each item on the WBS should be a definite action that you can give to someone to do which is detailed enough for them to be able work the time and resources they need to do it. • If you can’t delegate activities from your WBS, then you haven’t created a very good WBS.
- 10. HOW TO OVERCOME IT • Watch what you write down. • Each activity on the WBS should be described by a noun and a verb. Don’t write ‘user manuals’ when you mean ‘write user manuals’.
- 11. 5. NOT GROUPING ACTIVITIES The typical WBS creation process goes like this: 1. Write down as many tasks you can on sticky notes 2. Stick the notes on a wall 3. Move them around to create the WBS. • It will really help you to add another step here before you create the final WBS: group the activities. • If you don’t spend time on this step you may find yourself moving large amounts of sticky notes around when you find the one task that doesn’t fit in anything else and you decide to rethink the whole structure for the fifth time.
- 12. HOW TO OVERCOME IT • Group your sticky notes before moving them into their final locations and see what clusters emerge. • Name your groups: this will help when you come to put your schedule together later and also for the structure of the WBS.
- 13. THANK YOU