Question

6. Define the term WBS and give two approaches of developing WBS.

Answer 1

A WBS is the abbreviation used for thr work breakdown structure. This structure helps in project and engineering system management by essentially breaking down the deliverable oriented breakdown of any project into the smaller units. It helps the project by organising the team's work into effective manageable sections.

There exists essentially two ways for creating a work breakdown structure:

1. The top down approach: In this approach, the WBS is sustained and created by decomposing the project into various sub parts or lower level tasks. Based on general project characteristics and not on the detailed design. This decomposition continues until the task is reached to a level where it is accurately defined. It is considered a better way than the bottom down approach because it is rational as the solution to a problem is defined first and then the dissection is done to the solution into various steps to implement the same.

2. The bottom down approach: This approach on the other hand is a brain storming exercise as employees are asked about the tasks needed to compete the project. It is a time consuming process as all tasks are to be identified for the work. It is a resource intensive approach as it is assumed that all members of the team would have domain knowledge and understanding of the project knowledge for the integration and identification of the tasks. As many people are not knowledgable about all parts of the project, few low level tasks are omitted because of it. This approach should only be used at the time when experts have a detailed knowledge about every low level activity.