No matter how well a project is planned and executed, there are often factors beyond our control that can throw a project off course.
What can negatively impact a project? Sometimes it goes back to what’s missing. For example, if the elements within a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) don’t add up to equal 100% of the project scope.
But before we get into the details, it’s important to understand how the Work Breakdown Structure approach works. WBS is a practical approach for managing projects. “It represents a clear description of the project's deliverables and scope—the “what” of the project,” explains PMI’s article Building High Quality Work Breakdown Structures Using the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures--Second Edition.
“Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of the project work. The WBS is decomposed into work packages. The deliverable orientation of the hierarchy includes both internal and external deliverables,” adds the PMI article.
The WBS approach can help projects stay on track. One of the ways that the WBS approach helps project managers is with the "100 percent rule." This is a principle within the WBS, which states that each level of the WBS needs to account for 100% of the work outlined in the scope. Since no work can occur that’s outside the scope, the total sum of child elements will equate to 100% of the parent element's work.
So if everything is supposed to add up, how can a project fail? When a project fails, it can go back to having an incomplete or unused WBS. “A poorly constructed WBS can result in adverse project outcomes such as ongoing project extensions, unclear work assignments, goals, objectives, or deliverables, scope creep, or failure to deliver some elements of project scope,” says PMI's article.
When project managers fully use and follow their Work Breakdown Structure plans, they can achieve project objectives.
“In a survey conducted by the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures–Second Edition team, 87% of respondents said that they use the WBS as a planning tool for project management activities at least half of the time and over 60% used it more often. Their main objectives were to use the WBS to support activity definition, resource planning, scope planning and definition, cost estimating, and risk planning. 91% of the respondents stated they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the ability of the WBS to meet these objectives, reports the Salesforce Project Management Guide.
If your organization has processes that are followed repetitively with targeted start and deadline dates, leveraging a templated project management solution is an effective way to move those processes forward.
Our Milestones PM+ app is designed for WBS details like resource assignment and corresponding schedule activities, making the ‘100 percent rule’ totally achievable and adaptable for future changes.
Project managers can quickly import CSV, XML, Microsoft Project, and other project data files. They can convert projects from Milestones PM and other apps, and build templates with a top-down approach. Read the use case to learn more: Basic Project Management and Enhanced Task Boards in Salesforce.
Using Templates for Automatic Project Creation in Salesforce
Salesforce Task Notifications and Project Resource Alerts
Tracking Hours and Expenses on Project Task Page Layout
Basic Project Management and Enhanced Task Boards in Salesforce
To see a full listing of Milestones PM+ use cases,go to Milestones PM+ Use Case Library.
100% Salesforce-native and free to download on the AppExchange, Milestones PM+ works with all Salesforce clouds (Professional and up) for any industry.