Describe the elements of the project plan that depend on the WBS, and provide examples of any four (4).
WBS simply refers to the working breakdown structures and is useful in ensuring the success of any project. The major elements of a project plan depend on WBS, examples of these elements include budget, quality, duties and risks. WBS ensures that all their aspects are covered by further breaking them down into smaller tasks that be handled in smaller quantities and therefore making the whole process to run efficiently. The WBS will provide clarity on the project needs and organize project scope (Mathis,2012).
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Budget as an element of a project plan is very essential, as it will ensure all goals and objectives of a project are satisfactorily delivered. This also caters for resources necessary for achieving of successful project, such might include skills and ‘things’ that are necessary to make the project successful. Budget will make the project to be efficient, as it will cater for all the costs and resources required. Duties and time are other vital elements in a project plan. They are important because for any project to be successful all tasks need to be completed within the specified time. It will help in sticking to timelines and the set schedules. When there is a contract to be worked on, the workers should be time conscious to avoid lateness that can lead to incurring extra expenses and this can amount to losses for the firm (Mathis, ).
Risks that may occur during the delivery of project goals should be considered. Such risks might include injuries, accidents or death due to unsafe working environment. There should be an evaluation to ensure the environment is safe and occurrence of such incidences is eliminated. Quality is also paramount in any business; the products of any project must meet the customer satisfaction as desired. Failure to give quality products and services may lead to loss of customers and may cause downfall of an organization. Quality has to be assessed accordingly following the set standards (Mathis, 2012).
Discuss the potential risks and circumstances under which it might be appropriate to use a WBS from a previous project rather than develop anew one.
A project management may consider using past projects rather than developing a new one when there is need to save on time. This might be due to short deadlines set to undertake the projects. It will help to ensure that tasks are done in good time. The use of previous projects will be necessary when the organization wants to use past knowledge to ensure consistency and avoiding downfall of the projects. The past projects might also be used when the organization wants to save on cost. As the subject matter is known, there will be time and resources (skills and money) saved from going through or identifying tasks for the projects. The past project use may be used when the organization want to eliminate the stress of product introductions (Paradi, 2012). This will make product launch to be smoother and make the organization to be competitive. However using old projects in an organization may be risky in the fact that the previous risks may be replicated in to the future. It may also hinder innovation and creativity in the projects that the organization comes up with. Additionally if the new project has a slight diversion from the previous one the project management team may fail to attend to it accordingly as they are using an old criteria (Paradi, 2012).
Explain why it is useful to have a complete WBS before engaging informal uncertainty assessment
It is essential to have a complete WBS, as it will help to understand what the project needs including goals, objectives, resources, time and other necessary aspects. It is useful in helping to list out the requirements of the highest level and understand the scope of work. Additionally it will provide a chance to get clarification from customer teams and set the expected perspectives to be considered. The goals and objectives can further be outlined in a hierarchy diagram and the starting point can be easily determined. With such an arrangement and breakdown, tracking will be easy. The connection and linkage between WBS elements will also be visible and therefore the process of project estimation will bear much fruits (Murthy, 2014). Moreover, the WBS will help to break down the major deliverables into single or multiple measurable activities when projects are narrowed into single tasks or activities the risk level and complexity of each project is reduced it will therefore mean the projects become feasible. The estimated time of achieving a project will also be estimated and the possible plans and schedules are set.
Explain the difference between hard logic and soft logic forestablishing dependency relationships in project schedules and offer acreative example (not from the text) for each one.
The hard logic or mandatory dependencies are legally or contractually required and they are inherent in the work needed to achieve a project. This simply means certain tasks cannot be undertaken unless others are first completed. A good example is when constructing a floor; one must first lay the building foundation. In this context, constructing a floor has mandatory dependency on the building foundation; it cannot happen if there is no foundation built.
Soft logic on the contrary allows the project management team to move tasks and or schedule activities on their own discretion. They have the generally determined by the participating team and allow utilization of best practices and lessons from experiences. With this ideology, if there are two tasks, one can be performed even though the other one has not been completed. For instance if a firm wants to book airline tickets for their staff and buy insurance for some workers, they can do either without dependency of the other (Murthy, 2014).
References
Murthy A. S., (2014). Using “Work Breakdown Structures (Wbs)” For Effective Project Estimation. PM Times . Retrieved from https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/using-work-breakdown-structure-wbs-for- effective-project-estimation.html
Paradi D.,(2012).Use Wbs Templates To Speed Up Project Plan Creation The PM Hut. Retrieved from https://pmhut.com/use-wbs-templates-to-speed-up-project-plan- creation Mathis M., (2012). Work Breakdown Structure (Wbs) Purpose, Process And Pitfalls. Project Smart . Retrieved from https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/work-breakdown- structure-purpose-process-pitfalls.php
