Define the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Define the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Define the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Discuss: Work Breakdown Structure
Team Project Part 2: Define the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
In Part 2 of your Project, you will develop a work breakdown structure (WBS) that must be accomplished in order to complete the Casino Medical Center project. Use the Team Project Scenario document in this week’s Learning Resources to help define your deliverables. (SEE ATTACHED FILE FOR TEAM PROJECT SCENARIO)
Begin by deciding, with your team, the approach to developing a work breakdown structure you wish to use (WE WILL USE THE TABULAR BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE). This approach will guide your process and the final design of the WBS. Your team will identify project deliverables that need to be accomplished to achieve the project’s goals. For each deliverable, relevant subtasks or activities must be identified (the work that needs to be done). Using these activities, you create a WBS. This WBS will be the basis for creating a project plan and schedule in Microsoft Project.
You and your team are not expected to know all of the deliverables and sub-activities that need to occur, but you should be able to use your combined experience, knowledge, and research to identify many of the necessary deliverables and supporting activities. Be sure to utilize course resources, as these resources should provide information on what to include in this part of the Team Project.
As you and your team address the discussion question below, you will be able to write and submit
a 2- to 3-page team paper that summarizes the group’s work and that includes WBS diagrams of at least five high-level deliverables.
Deliverables to consider in defining the activities and tasks for the hypothetical project are included here. Your team will identify the unique deliverables for your project. Use specific names for the deliverables that reflect the project’s purpose.
Project Deliverables
Selection: Request for information & Request for Proposal
Installation: Hardware & Application
Configuration: Screens, Interfaces, & Reports
Tested system: Test Scenarios, Integration test, & Customer acceptance test
New workflow: Policies & Procedures
and a
Work Breakdown Structure diagram (Tabular Model)
To prepare:
Review this week’s Learning Resources on work breakdown structures.
Thoroughly examine the Team Project Overview document in this week’s Learning Resources to familiarize yourself with the requirements of this Assignment.
Engage in discussion with your team members on how you will collaborate, distribute work, and submit the Assignment.
To complete Part 2 of your Team Project:
Collaborate on a 2 to 3-page paper that summarizes the group’s work and includes a WBS diagram of at least five high-level deliverables and a list of relevant tasks and subtasks. Based on the Team Project Scenario (SEE ATTACHED FILE)
Project Deliverables
Selection: Request for information & Request for Proposal
Installation: Hardware & Application
Configuration: Screens, Interfaces, & Reports
Tested system: Test Scenarios, Integration test, & Customer acceptance test
New workflow: Policies & Procedures
and
Work Breakdown Structure diagram (Tabular Model)
Required Readings
Biafore, B. (2010). Microsoft Project 2010: The missing manual. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.
Chapter 4, “Breaking Work Into Task-Sized Chunks” (pp. 77–100)
This chapter explains how to create a work breakdown structure and how to import a work breakdown structure into Microsoft Project.
Coplan, S., & Masuda, D. (2011). Project management for healthcare information technology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Chapter 3, “Project Management”
“Prepare Work Breakdown Structure and WBS Dictionary” (pp. 53–56)
This section of Chapter 3 reviews the core processes of preparing a work breakdown structure (WBS). The chapter provides an example of a WBS and details its essential components.
Project Management Institute. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (5th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Author.
Chapter 5, “Project Scope Management”
5.3, “Create WBS” (pp. 125–132)
This section of Chapter 5 reviews the process of creating a work breakdown structure. Specifically, the chapter examines how to determine inputs, WBS tools and techniques, and outputs.
Kendrick, T. (2009). Identifying & managing project risk: Essential tools for failure-proofing your project(2nd ed., Ebrary version). New York, NY: AMACOM.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Chapter 3, “Identifying Project Scope Risk” (pp. 40–69)
This chapter examines methods of identifying scope risks and the types of scope risks pertaining to project deliverables. The chapter highlights a variety of sources of scope risk as well.
Shirey, M. R. (2008). Project management tools for leaders and entrepreneurs. Clinical Nurse Specialist, 22(3), 129–131.
Assignment: Work Breakdown Structure
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
The author of this article introduces project management tools that clinical nurse specialists may use to coordinate team work. The article highlights the usage of one such tool, the Gantt chart.
Thomas, M., Jacques, P. H., Adams, J. R., & Kihneman-Wooten, J. (2008). Developing an effective project: Planning and team building combined. Project Management Journal, 39(4), 105–113.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
This article analyzes project planning and control and the process of developing a project plan. The article also reports the results of research that sought to determine 137 organizations’ approaches to establishing projects.
U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2009, March 2). Work breakdown structure. GAO Reports, 65–78.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
This article examines the importance of a work breakdown structure (WBS) in project management. The chapter demonstrates how a WBS assists in resource identification, cost estimation, and risk determination.
Wu, Z., Schmidt, L. P., & Wigstrom, M. S. (2010). Product development workflow management based on work breakdown structure. IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings, 1–5.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
The authors of this article highlight the usage of WBS in managing complex product development projects. The authors examine how a WBS helps represent and manage the intricacies of tasks and activity relationships.
Mathis, M. (n.d.). Work breakdown structure: Purpose, process and pitfalls. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/work-breakdown-structure-purpose-process-pitfalls.html
This article provides a general review of the WBS. The author focuses on the purpose, process, and pitfalls of a WBS.
Document: Team Project Scenario (See ATTACHED PDF IN FILE AREA)
This document presents a scenario your team will use for the Team Project
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2013c). Planning, part I: Defining project scope and activities [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 6 minutes.
In this presentation, the participants discuss defining project scope and project activities, using the work breakdown structure, and managing project risk through SWOT analysis.
attachment
teamprojectscenario.pdf
Discuss: Work Breakdown Structure
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.