Maximize your WBS Charts

There are changes you can make to your WBS charts, you can change them to an indented chart because the format is preferred over the flow format (below post) when your project is large. Also, if you are contracting or work for government agencies they require the indented format WBS when a Request for Proposal (RFP) is submitted to bid on a project. These charts come in handy for a multitude of job descriptions, quality assurance, business analyst, project managers, business owners and always uncover areas that might have been missed during the planning and or analysis phase of the software development lifecycle. (SDLC) Even though the WBS is widely known as the primary tool used to scope a project, I have seen it used successfully in requirements gathering and analysis, quality assurance, design and development, implementation and training.

Keys to maximizing your WBS:

1. Assigning responsibility.

Once you identify all the elements of a WBS, it is very straightforward to determine (skill sets) who should perform the work.

2.Scheduling.

Scheduling addresses the WHENS. Once you know who is doing the work it will not be difficult to construct a schedule for the project.

3.Assigning costing.

Assign costs to each activity in the WBS chart, then you accumulate the costs at the higher level tasks and finally, you will have the total cost of the project.

#agileframeworks #workbreakdownstructure #softwaredevelopmentlifecycle #ProjectManagement