Examples of Different WBS: (continued)

… A cruise ship modification project, two different WBS to level 1

The project team created two fundamentally different work breakdown structures for the same project: chronological and functional. These are both shown on the next page. They evaluated advantages and disadvantages of each structure for application to their type of business. The top WBS emphasizes a chronological flow of work through the project life cycle. The bottom one emphasizes work done within functional departments. Please listen to some of the conclusions below.

Under what conditions might the top WBS give you better management control. Under what conditions might the bottom WBS give you better management control. Click on the highlighted words to hear some ideas.

For this project, the project team concluded that the chronological WBS was a better approach. The critical path was easier to determine, there was more sense of urgency between team members to assure the work flowed quickly, and communications between the team was actually enhanced.