Liliana Buchtik - Secrets to Mastering the WBS in Real-World Projects

SECRETS TO
MASTERING
THE WBS
IN REAL-WORLD PROJECTS THE MOST PRACTICAL APPROACH TO WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES (WBS)! LILIANA BUCHTIK, PMP

ISBN: 978-1-935589-04-4

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Dedicated To

The project managers looking for better tools, resources, and realworld experiences to make their projects successful and to produce positive business results.

Those who have helped me grow as a person and as a professional in the global project management profession. Those who enriched my understanding and experiences, and learned with me, including my unbelievable coaches and mentors, and my unconditional friends.

My family for their immense love, encouragement, and outstanding support through my biggest challenges and dreams. I owe to you all that I am.

Acknowledgements

Secrets to Mastering the WBS in Real-World Projects grew out of a series of events that made me realize there was still more to share on this topic. A project like this book is not something I could have achieved alone. This book is the result of a great and talented team of family members, friends, experts, reviewers, editors, designers, companies, and others that collaborated to contribute to it and ultimately, to the global project management profession and community.

I owe special thanks to Dr. Harold Kerzner for reviewing and providing input to my book. Thank you, Federico Loguzzo, for your continued support and overall design guidance. Thank you to the following: Martin Larregui, Marcelo Torassa, Brandon Conrad, Jim Spiller, Cindy Miller, Osvaldo Ucha, and Laura Toledo for your assistance; my editor, for your fine editing and help; my reviewers for taking the time to read the manuscript and share your thoughts; and finally, to my mentors and coaches.

To all of you, my deepest thanks. Without your ideas, time, and contributions this book would not have come to be.

Contents

Figures and Tables

Figures

Tables

Introduction

I f you've managed projects, I am sure that you've experienced issues related to the project scope. Discussions and arguments with the customers about what is and what isn't inside the scope, change requests, and delays, to name a few. It's common to face situations like the one depicted in where the customer requested a house but expected and wanted a castle; a totally different outcome. It's common to have initial scope definitions that don't match the final project scope. In this example, the customer initially requested a house and the project manager planned for it. The customer was not very clear about the scope at the beginning, nor the project manager did a good job to understand and properly define the scope. As a result, throughout the project the customer requested more and more things, increasing the scope, timelines, and budget. The castle was delivered with delays, and exceeded the initial budget. Does this sound familiar? How can a project manager plan for a house and deliver a castle? How do you manage scope related issues? How do you ensure a successful definition of the project scope? What are the tools you should use to help you minimize or avoid situations like this one? This is what this book is all about. It's about helping you make a difference in your projects and sharing the secrets for you to master the scope management through the use of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). You need to carefully plan and manage the scope and its changes to ensure a successful delivery.

In this book you'll find some of the things that nobody else has written about the WBS. It'll change the way you think about and understand the WBS. The WBS is the cornerstone for successful scope and project management. You can learn to mastering the WBS and start producing better results in your projects. As you walk through the pages of this book, I'll lead you to discover how you can apply key WBS concepts and techniques to turn your project scope management practices from good to great.

WBS is not yet such a popular term in the project management world like the terms cost, risk, and time. In A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Fourth Edition .

Figure I.2 Reasons for project failure

The proof of this statement goes beyond research and statistics. You can search over the Internet and you'll easily find studies that cite several related reasons for project failure including:

lack of or poor project planning, changing requirements or specifications, and inadequately trained or inexperienced project managers.

These reasons lead to missed deadlines, exceeded budgets, poor communications, and an inability to meet project requirements, to name a few.

I've used the WBS in real-world projects, as well as proven its benefits to the project, its stakeholders, and to me, the project manager. You can succeed by using this tool which is simple, but powerful and versatile. I use the WBS in risky and complex projects as well as low-risk and short-term projects. I use it in my country and when I work across continents. I use it with team members who speak my language and with those project teams that speak different languages. And the value of a WBS remains the sameit's just an incredible tool that makes a positive impact on your projects when you use it correctly.

The WBS still doesn't receive the credit it deserves. It's common to find project managers defining a project from a schedule instead of from a well defined scope and WBS. Some project managers talk about When to do something when it's still unclear what the project must deliver. You might ask how reliable costs, resources, and time estimates are when the scope is not clear. That would be a valid question.

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