1. What differentiates a list of project requirements from a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?
Up to present times, project management has emerged due to extensive growth of demand of multifaceted, cultured, and modified products and services that required broad expansion of human knowledge. In this case, project management tends to include a set of procedures, principles, and strategies that provide adequate planning of the objective-oriented work, which conforms effective planning and controlling of projects. This can be achieved through a list of project requirements and work breakdown schedule. According to Devi and Reddy (2012), a list of project requirements includes all the procedures, methods and materials and workforce that is required for an objective-oriented work to be completed. This is different from Work Breakdown Structure in the sense that it includes breaking down of project work element into hierarchical structures and levels that indicates how the project will flow within a premeditated timeline provided by the project manager. In other words, what differentiates WBS from the list of project requirements is that WBS tend to define the scope of the whole project, which includes actual scheduling, governing, implementation, status, and reporting (Devi & Reddy, 2012). Additionally, WBS allows the project to be broken-down into simpler elements that establish an outline for operative management and control of project timeline, opportunity, budget, and success.
2. What is the importance of developing a WBS to manage a project?
WBS is an essential tool because it is regarded as the cornerstone of the project as it makes the planning steady and offers for effective project implementation. According to the US Department of Energy (2003) provides that all the work that is contained within WBS can be easily identified, schedules, estimated, and budgeted for. In this case, WBS holds the project’s scope starting point that is obligatory to achieve the technical purposes of the work described. Consequently, the central objective of creating a WBS is to engage the project team to actively and reasonably plan out the project to success, collecting the material about work that needs to be done for a project, and establishing activities into controllable mechanisms that will achieve project objectives.
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On the other hand, WBS is essential in project management in the sense that it identifies the necessary budgeting that the project requires. Besides, it provides budget estimates with integrates with other project elements including project measurements and flexible extra or eradication of the work scope (US Department of Energy, 2003). Separately, as argued by Devi and Reddy (2012), WBS provides project managers with accurate project organization that is efficiently planned with every individual assigned responsibilities to determine the primary deliverables of the project and efficiently completes a particular word within a timeline.
Another importance of developing WBS to manage a project is that it provides room for accurate cost estimation, the risk involved, and time requirement. Besides, WBS provides the project manager with the chance to describe the project scope to the shareholders. In this case, WBS will make project achievements more clear and actual so that the project team and stakeholders can understand what has been accomplished (Devi and Reddy, 2012).
3. How does the WBS contribute to the success of a project?
To start with breaking down the project into hierarchical levels will define and organize the scope of the entire project to be accurately planned and implemented. Devi and Reddy (2012) argue that through the hierarchical tree structures, managers and project team can identify deliverable and understand what is the requirement to be accomplished within a given timeline. Similarly, a well created WBS tends to engage the project team members in discussing the frameworks of the project comprehensively.
Another way that WBS contributes to the success of the project is that it assists with the assigning responsibilities, budgeting, and resource allocation, supervising of the project proceedings, and managing of the project. In this case, budget estimation together with potential identification of risk is handled efficiently. Besides, deliverables become more precise, and every project team understands what to be done within each deliverable (Devi and Redd, 2012).
Hans (2013), on the other hand, argues that WBS contributes to the success of the project as it can provide in detail the work required to complete the project’s purposes. In this case, elements such as cost estimation, schedule estimation offers a better success of the project. Additionally, WBS act as a communication tool between the shareholders and the project team as it picks on the critical elements of a plan.
4. Once the project is finalized, what are the tools you can use to monitor the schedule?
According to Maserang (2002), some of the tools that should be used to monitor project schedule after completion include Program Evaluation Review Technique, Critical Path Analysis, and Gantt Charts. These devices are the most commonly used project management tools. For instance, PERT is a tool that is used to provide a more accurate time estimation, which accounts for unexpected risk when predicting project timeline. In this case, project manager using PERT can identify the best or worst within the timeframe.
Critical Path Analysis is a tool that provides hierarchical and timing of each activity. Besides, the devices to monitor the project schedule through communicating comprehensively together with effective time management for complex projects (Maserang, 2002). This tool arranges the activities in sequences that do the project to be monitored smoothly and efficiently.
Finally, Gantt Chart is used for project scheduling. In this case, it is equally used to plan the time scale, estimate the cost with graphical illustration, and provides plan and coordination for the various task of the project.
5. How do you handle overallocated resources?
Over-allocation of the resources tend to occurs when the number of that tasks are many. Because resources remain the critical success of a given project, many of the managers are faced with the difficulty in handling over allocation, some of the ways of handling over a distribution of the resources include changing the activity relationship, prioritizing projects in which key projects are the one completed, and resource leveling.
What are the advantages and disadvantages to fast-track a project?
Some of the advantages and disadvantages to first-tracking a project are summarized in the table below:
Table: Advantages and Disadvantages to First-Track a Project
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|
Provides an early delivery of the project. Free up the project resources at early stages, hence cost lowering. Reduce responsibility on the project Maintains the project on constant schedule. Reduces time on task |
The critical path cannot be followed. Risk of the re-work might arise Close monitoring of the critical path requires additional workforce. Loss of time on individual task |
References
Devi, R T., & Reddy, S. (2012). Work Breakdown Structure of the Project. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, 2(2); 683-685.
Hans, T. R. (2013). Work Breakdown Structure: A Tool for Software Project Scope Verification. International Journal of Engineering and Applications, 4(4); 19-25.
Maserang, S. (2002). Project Management: Tools and Techniques. System Analysis & System. Available from http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/488_f02_papers/ProjMgmt.html
US Department of Energy. (2003). Work Breakdown Structure. Project Management Practices. Available from http://www4.rcf.bnl.gov/~videbaks/hft/cd1/DOE_guidance_wBS.pdf
