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Software Project Management: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The document discusses the work breakdown structure (WBS), which is a critical tool for organizing, planning, and tracking a project. The WBS partitions a project into smaller, manageable tasks and elements in a hierarchical structure. It can be organized by process, product, or use a hybrid approach. The WBS is developed using top-down, bottom-up, analogy, or brainstorming techniques. It should break work down to a level where time and cost estimates are accurate and each element corresponds to a deliverable. An example WBS for a software project is provided.

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Jovani Girma
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292 views8 pages

Software Project Management: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The document discusses the work breakdown structure (WBS), which is a critical tool for organizing, planning, and tracking a project. The WBS partitions a project into smaller, manageable tasks and elements in a hierarchical structure. It can be organized by process, product, or use a hybrid approach. The WBS is developed using top-down, bottom-up, analogy, or brainstorming techniques. It should break work down to a level where time and cost estimates are accurate and each element corresponds to a deliverable. An example WBS for a software project is provided.

Uploaded by

Jovani Girma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

SOFTWARE PROJECT

MANAGEMENT
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE(WBS)
WBS
• Partitioning your project:
- Need to decompose your project into
manageable tasks to better control the triple
constraints.
WBS
• Critical tool for organizing work, build realistic
schedule and cost estimate, and
reporting/tracking/controlling.
• Hierarchical list of project’s work activities
• Uses either outline/graphical tree format
• Shows “is contained in” relationships
• Doesn’t show dependencies or durations
• All WBS paths don’t have to go to the same level
WBS Types
• Process WBS
- Activity oriented, eg. Rqts, analysis, design, testing
- Typically used by PM
• Product WBS
- Entity oriented, eg. Interface system, DB
- Typically used by engineering manager
• Hybrid WBS
- eg. Lifecycle phases at high level with components or
feature specifics within faces
- Rationale: processes produce product
WBS Techniques
• Top-down
- Applied in majority of situations
- Systematically develop increasing level of detail
- Best if
o Problem is understood
o Technology and methodology are not new
• Bottom-up
- Starts at lowest level
- Aggregate into summaries and higher levels
- Cons
o Time consuming
o Needs more requirements complete
- Pros- detailed
WBS Techniques
• Company’s guidelines, if any
• Analogy
- Based on similar previous projects
- Uses a template
- Pros- based on past actual experience
- Cons – needs comparable project
• Brainstorming
- Generate all activities you can think of that need to be
done
- Group them into categories
WBS Guidelines
• Should be easy to understand
• Break down until you can generate accurate
time and cost estimates
• Ensure each element corresponds to a
deliverable
• As appropriate team members should be
involved in the design, review, comment, and
approval of WBS
WBS Example
WBS code Task Name
1 Define SW requirements
1.1 SW requirements elicitation
1.1.1 Identify functional requirements
1.1.2 Identify non-functional requirements
1.1.3 Produce system model
[Link] Produce use case model
1.13.2 Produce class diagram
1.1.4 Produce dynamical model
[Link] Produce sequence diagram
[Link] Produce activity diagram
1. 2 Produce draft RAD
1.3 Get feedback on the draft RAD
1.4 Produce final RAD

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