Knowledge Area: Project Scope Management

• WBS (Work breakdown structure) is the most important tool & technique for understanding and ORGANIZING the complete project scope. The WBS later is used for developing a more robust and clear project plan.
• The project scope is the most fundamental ASPECT of the project. During project initiation, the project scope will be defined in very high level as an objective statement such as “Implement the HR, Finance and Inventory modules of ERP within 12 months”.
• It is important to define and refine the project objective and project requirements. Thereafter the team NEEDS to elaborate the project scope in detail. Project scope will include all the deliverables of the project and all the associated work that needs to be done to fulfil all the requirements.
• WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of project work into smaller and more manageable components (called work package) to include all the project work to complete the project successfully. A WBS helps the team not only to understand the project scope in detail; it also is used by the team for the following:
  • Estimating the duration, cost and RESOURCE for each smaller component with higher accuracy
  • Clearly ASSIGN roles and responsibilities of different work components among the team members
  • Develop an Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS) based on the WBS
  • Monitor and track each work package with clarity
  • Identify project risk much more comprehensively for each group of work packages
• The above points are the benefits of making a WBS. A good WBS leads to a very credible and accurate project plan, which will facilitate smooth execution of work and meaningful tracking of progress. If there is no WBS, essentially there is no meaningful and credible project management. Hence WBS is the most fundamental part of the overall project management plan.
• For more clear understanding refer:Work breakdown structure
• Also refer to this to know more on scope planning, Project scope definition