Hierarchical structure of project work

The third question of system analysis to solve the problem is: 

 

"What needs to be done to solve the problem?"

The answer to this question is to create a list of works that need to be performed on the project. This list of works is called the hierarchical structure of the project work (Work Breakdown Structure).

Project work structure - a hierarchical structure that divides the project work into groups, subgroups, phases, etc. (called WBS - project structure).

By its nature, the structure of work is hierarchical, and is intended to completely describe the project and track changes in the composition and content of work that occur in it.

WBS- structure is a list of works that need to be performed on the project. 

To build it, it is necessary to decompose the work. It can be carried out in different ways: either by the life cycle of the project, or by the content of the product (what we want to get as a result). In any case, blocks of work are first allocated, which need to be detailed as the WBS structure is developed.

 

Often they use an iterative approach to create a WBS structure, which consists in the fact that at the initial stage it is not always possible to describe in detail all the work on the project.

After the decomposition of the work is carried out, we can talk about the presence of a hierarchical structure of work. After that, they begin to schedule the project, i.e. establish links between works, estimate the duration of each work, and also determine restrictions on the start and end dates of the project, phases, individual works if necessary. 

As a result, 

you can get a Gantt graph - a horizontal line chart in which the work of the project is represented by extended segments in time with start and end dates.

To perform these actions, there are special software products, in this case Microsoft Project.

To determine the cost of the project, you need to know the cost of the resources that make up the project, the time of work and the cost of these works. 

 

Thus, the estimation of the cost of the project begins after determining the work of the project and the structure of the necessary resources. Control of the cost of the project is carried out in the process of project implementation by such methods as analysis of the earned volume, cost forecasting.