Information Technology
Project Management

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

This lecture reviews

Objectives

• Produce a statement of work (SOW) and decompose overall project goals.
• Describe alternative methods of managing scope of a project
• Develop a work breakdown structure (WBS)

Assigned Reading

• Read about dependency among tasks in project management in Wikipedia: More►
• Read about work breakdown structures in Wikipedia: More►

Presentations

• Lecture on work breakdown structures: Slides► Listen►  SWF► WMV► You Tube 1► You Tube 2►  Arabic 1►  Arabic 2►

What you know?

Advanced learners like you, often need different ways of understanding a topic. Reading is just one way of understanding. Another way is through writing about what you have read.  The enclosed assessment is designed to get you to think more about the concepts taught in this session. 

1. What level is the work breakdown 1.2.3 listed at?
2. How could wrong grouping of tasks increase the length of a project?
3. What are four ways that two tasks may be related to each other?

Please send an email to your instructor with your responses to the above questions.    Make sure that the email subject line includes the course number, topic name and your name, otherwise it will not get to the right place.  If you wish to receive a receipt that the instructor has received your email, you may request the receipt from your email program.  Please respond to all of the questions within the same email.  Do not attach any files.  Keep a copy of all your emails to the instructor till the end of the semester.  Email►

Rapid Analysis

1. Create a work breakdown structure for conducting a satisfaction survey within a health care organization.  Make sure that at least 8 different tasks are examined and each task has at least 3 subtasks. 

2. Report the work breakdown in your EHR/improvement projects and report the schedule of activities for each project.  Input the work breakdown into a Project Management software and copy the start and end dates of each task, the precedence for each task into the slides. 

3. Report the work breakdown for your personal project.  Input the work breakdown into a Project Management software and copy the start and end dates of each task, the precedence for each task into the slides. 

Please send an email to your instructor with your responses to the above questions.    Attach only the Power Point slides.  Make sure that the email subject line includes the course number, topic name and your name, otherwise it will not get to the right place.  Email►