Page 78 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Software Project Management

Notes 3.6 Representing the WBS

Whatever approach you use, the WBS can be generically represented, as shown in Figure 3.1. The
goal statement represents the reason for doing the project.

Figure 3.1: WBS for a House

The Level 1 partitioning into some number of activities (also known as chunks of work) is a
necessary and sufficient set of activities. That is, when all of these first-level activities are complete,
the project is complete. For any activity that does not possess the six characteristics, we partition
it into a set of necessary and sufficient activities at Level 2. The process continues until all
activities have met the six criteria. The lowest level of decomposition in the WBS defines a set of
activities that will each have an activity manager, someone who is responsible for completing
the activity.

The lowest-level activities are defined by a work package. A work package is simply the list of
things to do to complete the activity. The work package may be very simple, such as getting
management to sign off on a deliverable.

Notes A work package may be a mini project and may consist of all the properties of any
other project, except that the activity defining this project possesses the six criteria and
need not be further partitioned.

72 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY