The BS in WBS

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been asked to come up with subtasks to populate a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for the tasks I perform on a small program not worthy of a WBS. Any thoughts what one might put down as generic or broad steps to answer the mail on this? Seems ridiculous and too much bureaucracy for what is blatantly obvious being such a small program.

I recognize you don’t know what I do, but if it helps, it is the paper-pushing side to engineering. Lots of meetings and reviews. Maybe your broad and general responses will give me some ideas how to fill in something that sounds good. Hoping others have been in this boat trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

2

Part of the value of a good WBS is it identifies the dependencies, both internal & external, and it shows where tasks can be parallelized even if the whole job is normally done solo in series.

Dors any of that resonate w the specifics of your task / job / project?

3

Have you considered outlining what you do (in the context of this thread) in the form of a WBS?

4

PLAN

  1. Make a list of the things I’m gonna do
  2. Do the things on the list

BACKOUT STRATEGY

  1. Undo what I did if it doesn’t work right
5

Here’s how I do it: Start with the end product and work backwards. Outline all the major steps that need to happen to get to the end product, then outline each of the small steps needed to make each of the major steps happen. Depending on how far you wanna go, outline the tiny steps needed to make each small step happen.

More directly to your question, typical generic steps might include: initiation, planning, requirements, design, build, test, deploy, measure. Other generic steps might include: resourcing/staffing, budgeting, contracting, legal, branding, environments, data/reporting, communications, staff engagement. Just tossing out some ideas.

6

Sounds good to point me in the right direction (and put me on a path of least resistance). The crazy thing is I brought this company my baby, so to speak…a very small project not worthy of all thiis brain power…because I needed a “vehicle” to do business with the Governmenr (that has to overthink everything) and, on top of that, my company is are excellent at micromanagement and overmanagement. It’s like killing an ant with a nuclear bomb. I wish I were in a position to tell them what they can do.