The WBS is essential in project Planning, along with this, the WBS provides the project a structure of
which to work against. For example, and this is a holistic approach, building a golf cart. If you were to
have a project team consisting of engineering staff along with you being the PM, the engineers would
provide an engineering best estimate (ROM or Engineering BOE) for their respective tasks at hand. So if
you break respective items down into individual sections such as axles and then the differential and the
gears within the differential and then the motor drive that turns the PTO or drive shaft that then needs a
motor controller that then needs someone to tune the firmware/software, the list goes on and on as
each component of the whole project or system is contributed to the over all product. As stated, each
working task contributes to the WBS which will allow the PM to utilize best practices to establish a
project budget, schedule, risk register, and other related items.
From my experience, especially doing R&D type projects, I have numerous one on one meetings with
each engineering trade (mechanical, electrical, software, etc.) to ask them questions about the
“problem” we are solving. My questions usually are derived from my prior questioning of the
customer/stakeholder, which are requirements (items such as size, power, weight). Combining what I
know from the requirements and what the engineers are stating will be the work required to provide a
solution, I create the WBS which I resource load. To me, resource loading means that I have a schedule
that has assigned resources (people, materials, etc.) from conception to completion. Although the WBS
is not technically a schedule, the project schedule and budget are to an extent directly derived from the
WBS.
Lastly, utilizing software such as M.S. Project or P6 can make a PM’s job substantially easier. However, in
the event that someone had to manually create a WBS, they could utilize a hierarchy chart in M.S. Word
or create a chart in M.S. Excel to make the WBS. As long as you can create a WBS that clearly portrays
the work in the appropriate levels, it does not matter what software you use.
