Project WBS with Durations

The ITP-1 – Project WBS with Durations is due as shown in the schedule. The assignment instructions are attached.

ITP-1- Project WBS with Durations Page 1 of 6

ITP-1 Project Work Breakdown Structure with Durations (Individual project)

Please be sure to read the Team Contribution Assessment and Grading of Team Assignments and the
Project Documentation Requirements sections of the ITP Master Document.

Assignment for the ITP-1 Project Deliverable

The objective of this assignment is for each member of the team to individually determine the
tasks that will be required to build the IT project for the client organization and to put these tasks
into a format that will facilitate your team’s efforts (next week) to build a single WBS for the next
ITP assignment.

Please post your ITP WBS assignment in your Assignment Folder; please include your last name and “ITP-
1” as part of the file name (example: Jones – ITP-1 – WBS).

This assignment has two parts.

Part 1. Work Breakdown Structure in Microsoft Project

Review your project charter and the overview of the ITP posted in the Syllabus and in the previous
project assignment. Read the Week 2 Lecture – How to Build Work Breakdown Structures. Then,
individually, develop and submit a project work breakdown structure (WBS). Use the textbook and LEO
Conferences (and other valid sources, such as PMI) and submit in Microsoft Project .mpp format. The
Readings in your weekly Content will help with your assignments.

Note that subsequent ITP deliverables will be in Microsoft Project, so if you have not yet loaded
Microsoft Project, please do so now.

Required:

Your copy of Microsoft Project needs some configuring before you get into this assignment. Hint: This
step will count towards your grade.

NOTE: This is a one-time setup.

• Launch Microsoft Project and open a Blank Project

• Open the Project Options dialog

• Verify your calendar options settings look EXACTLY like this

http://www.pmi.org/

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• Verify your scheduling options look EXACTLY like this

• Verify your calculation settings look EXACTLY like this

You will find that there are MANY ways to add information to your Microsoft Project. If you find yourself
struggling with the software, please consider:

• Using Microsoft Project’s Help feature

• Using the tutorials at Microsoft.com

• Checking out online tutorials on YouTube

• Looking for other on-line help

• Using the library or a bookstore for supplemental texts

• Asking me for help

Your WBS should include all work necessary to complete the scope of the project, specifically including
the technical IT work of the project, but also including the project management work as well. At this
stage, this deliverable should not yet include predecessor-successor linkages, time or duration, dates, or
resource (cost, staff, etc.) data. This is because Microsoft Project performs a complex algorithm with
each project element that is added. To see the impact of each project element, we need to add them
one at a time. For this assignment, after the WBS is completed, we will add only durations in this
assignment.

Here are some suggested Level 2 WBS elements:

• IT System Design

• System Hardware

• System Software

• System Networking

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• System Test

• Project Management

• System Transition

With respect to hardware, software and networking – lower level WBS elements will deal with Orders,
Delivery, Receiving, Installation, etc.

To reiterate, there is a lot more to the WBS than this. Do not spend too much time getting “down into
the weeds”. A good size for this class would be no more than 10 Level 2 elements. Decompose these to
Level 3 elements (or Level 4 if absolutely necessary). Remember, the lowest level elements (those with
indented sub-tasks, not indented summary tasks) will be your work packages.

Pay close attention to the Week 2 Lecture, How to Build Work Breakdown Structures, including:

• WBS Creation process

• Definitions

• Convention for WBS structure

• Considerations for building the WBS

• Schedule development process

• Terminology

You MAY work with your teammates to determine the summary tasks. On your own, you should
provide your own summary tasks that may be different, plus sub-tasks based on your own
knowledge of the project, the project scope and what you know about IT systems .

Now you are going to define and list sub-tasks within each work package. Once you have the sub-tasks
loaded, apply estimated durations for each one. When working with your schedule, you want to be
careful not to interfere with Project’s scheduling engine. This means only loading durations for sub-
tasks, NOT the Summary Tasks! Just because Project does not stop you from changing Summary Task
durations, it does not mean changing them is a good idea!

Scheduling conventions in Project

• Do not enter dates (i.e., Start, Finish, etc). Only enter activity durations and let the MS-Project
scheduling engine calculate the dates.

• Try to avoid overly small (micromanaged) or overly large durations (which bite off more than
you can chew). Keep the durations reasonable and realistic. A best scheduling practice is to keep
sub-task durations to 80 hours (10 days) or less.

• Do not use “manually scheduled” sub-tasks. Make sure every sub-task uses the “automatically
scheduled” setting. Auto-Schedule is on the tool bar at the top and includes push-pins and blue
arrows. When manually scheduled, the dates are essentially hard-coded (set to a defined date)
and not allowed to automatically adjust when the sub-task durations and critical paths change.

• In Microsoft Project, the Summary Tasks are “roll up” tasks and should have no work
themselves. Do not enter a duration for Summary Tasks as Microsoft Project automatically
calculates their durations from the durations of the sub-tasks indented beneath.

Submit Part 1 as a single Microsoft Project (.mpp) file. Include your name in the file name and post in
the Assignment area for ITP-1. Be careful to post in the right place.

Part 2. Answers to Questions in Microsoft Word

Read and think through the options and alternatives suggested by these questions before you build your
WBS. Then finally, when your WBS is completed, answer the following questions and submit them as a

ITP-1 – Project WBS with Durations Page 4 of 6

word doc in addition to your wbs file (above). As a 400-level class, writing should be of a style
appropriate for a senior level college class.

“Yes” or “No” answers with no explanations or discussions are not appropriate answers.

1. Does your WBS include everything in your team’s charter and all deliverables (promised
deliverables to the client organization customer)? Does your WBS address tasks that were not
discussed in the Project Charter? If so, what are they and how did you decide you needed the
additional tasks?

2. Does your WBS include project management tasks necessary to manage the project, as well?

3. Did you develop your WBS top-down or bottom up approach? Why? To answer this question,
please define the terms first. This is an opportunity to include additional research to answer the
question completely.

4. Did you use a product-oriented WBS, or a process-oriented (e.g., SDLC phases) WBS, or
something else? What are the definitions and how did those definitions affect your decision?
Why?

5. It is often a good idea to prepare the WBS in an OUTLINE in Word instead of Excel, or Excel
instead of Project. This helps team members visualize the order of the tasks and how the tasks
might decompose into lower levels. Did you do this (use Word or Excel first) or did you only use
Excel or Project? If you only used Project, did you find yourself rearranging the order of the tasks
as you were inputting them or as you were finishing the WBS?

6. Did you initially approach it graphically (e.g., like an organization chart) or tabularly (like a list or
table), or something else? Why?

7. Did you work with your teammates to determine the major tasks or did you do it all on your
own? How well did it work?

As you prepare for the next assignment, please discuss with your teammates how you will manage the
WBS. One possibility is to divide up the major tasks among teammates. Each teammate would have
responsibility for that “area” and all areas will be consolidated into a single Microsoft Project document.
However, all the team members’ submissions taken together should cover the entire project WBS. You
may use any other approach that works well for your team. Any approach other than each team
member doing the entire project WBS must be explained in each submission.

Submit the Microsoft Word document in the Assignment area. Please include your name in the file
name and be sure to post in the right place (ITP-1).

Afterward, each team member should post his/her WBS in the LEO Group area for merging and for
consolidation into a single team WBS for the next ITP assignment.

Does it seem as though perhaps there is not enough information to complete the project and the WBS?
If so, please ask the client/customer (your instructor).

Grading approximate breakdown by areas include:

• General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~5%)

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• WBS accomplishes the project (~20%)

• WBS, technical (~30%)

• Schedule (durations) (~35%)

• Questions (~10%)

Rubrics and Grading for the ITP-1 Project Deliverable

Spelling, punctuation and formatting are worth a significant portion of the grade/points earned. In other words, if
a WBS is graded as an 8.4 but has several writing/editing errors, the grade for the assignment could be as low as
6.0.

To earn 90-100% of the points available for this assignment –

All requirements of the assignment are met. The WBS includes at least 10 major summary tasks and at least 60
lower level sub-tasks. The sub-tasks are all single-verb statements, and sub-tasks (lower level tasks) are indented
to the appropriate level. The WBS is logical, complete, and flows well from beginning to end. The textbook and at
least 2 references are used from academically credible sources are used to help build the WBS. A Reference Page is
included. All questions in Part 2 are answered in a writing style appropriate for a senior level course; background is
included and decisions and reasoning for decisions are included. The WBS has durations for lowest-level sub-tasks.
Summary tasks have no hard-coded durations assigned (Microsoft Project automatically calculates their durations).
Durations include minutes, hours, days, and weeks in whole numbers (no decimals!). There should be a single
project start milestone and a single project end milestone. Microsoft Project is used (vice MS Word or Excel), the
Notes feature is used to provide supplemental information, and at least two other features of Microsoft Project
have been used and discussed in the text document. All questions in Part 2 are answered. Additionally, the WBS is
logical and flows well from beginning to end.

To earn 80-89% of the points available for this assignment –

All requirements are met. The WBS includes 8-10 major summary tasks and 40-60 lower level sub-tasks. The sub-
tasks are verb statements, with 4 or fewer tasks that do not begin with a verb or 4 or fewer that are double verbs.
Sub-tasks are indented to the appropriate level. The WBS is logical and flows well from beginning to end. There
should be a single project start milestone and a single project end milestone. At least 1 reference is used from an
academically credible source and the textbook is used. A Reference Page is included. The textbook is used and
discussed in the text document. The WBS has durations for lowest-level sub-tasks. Summary tasks have no hard-
coded durations assigned (Microsoft Project automatically calculates their durations). Durations include hours,
days, and weeks in whole numbers (no decimals!). All Part 2 questions are answered.

To earn 70-79% of the points available for this assignment –

All requirements are met. The WBS includes 7-9 major summary tasks and 30-40 total sub-tasks. The sub-tasks are
verb statements, with 7 or fewer sub-tasks that do not begin with a verb or 5 or fewer that are double verbs. Sub-
tasks are indented to the appropriate level with 5 or fewer that are not at the appropriate level. The WBS is logical
and flows well from beginning to end. There should be a single project start milestone and a single project end
milestone. All questions are answered.

To earn 60-69% of the points available for this assignment –

The WBS includes fewer than 7 major summary tasks and fewer than 14 lower level sub-tasks. More than more
than 7 sub-tasks do not begin with a verb or are double verbs. More than 5 sub-tasks are not indented to the
appropriate level. The WBS is not sequential or does not follow a logical order. The WBS does not include a project
start milestone or a project end milestone. Not all questions are answered.

ITP-1 – Project WBS with Durations Page 6 of 6

Less than 60% –

WBSs that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero. WBSs that are not original work will earn a zero.

January 2020

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Project Fields to Include in ITP Deliverables

Contents

• Tasks to include in ITP Deliverables
•

Project Configuration Settings

• ITP-1 – Project WBS with Durations
•

TTP-3 – Project Schedule with Dependency Links

• TTP-4 – Project Resources and Costs
•

ITP-3 – Project Risk Assessment

•

TTP-5 – Consolidated Project Management Plan

•

TTP-6 – Project Execution, Tracking and Changes

Tasks to Include in ITP Deliverables

First, before we get to fields – Please make sure that your WBS (and .mpp file) include the following tasks
as part of your WBS. Note that this these are necessary but far from sufficient. Many more tasks are
needed. This also does not mean that a single task will necessarily suffice for each of these. Rather,
include as many tasks as it takes to do the job, but please include at least the following kinds of tasks in
addition to whatever else you were planning for your WBS:

• Tasks regarding ordering, delivering, and receiving hardware

• Tasks regarding ordering, delivering, and receiving software

• Tasks regarding ordering, delivering, and receiving networking

• Tasks regarding installing hardware

• Tasks regarding installing software

• Tasks regarding installing networking

• Tasks regarding managing, controlling, and monitoring the project and the team

• Project meetings

To reiterate, there is a lot more to the WBS than this. However, you will find these tasks to be needed in
later ITP deliverables. Omitting them would likely be detrimental for many assignments.

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Project Configuration Settings

Project needs some configuring before you submit these assignments. Hint: This step will count

towards your grade.

NOTE: This is a one-time setup. If you follow the configuration steps for ITP-1, you do not need to

configure Project for later assignments.

Launch Project and open a Blank Project. Open Project Options and adjust your calendar options

settings to look EXACTLY like this:

Verify your scheduling options look EXACTLY like this

Verify your calculation settings look EXACTLY like this

January 2020

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ITP-1 – Project WBS with Durations

Please ensure that your .mpp file includes at least the following fields (columns) visible in the

left-hand table portion of the Gantt chart view or the Tracking Gantt view:

• Indicators (white “i” in a solid blue circle, listed in the Columns list as “Indicators”) [a
default field]

• Task Mode

• Name (i.e., task name) [a default field]

• Duration [a default field]

TTP-3 – Project Schedule with Dependency Links

Before we get to TTP-3 fields, a note about the general structure of the TTP-3 schedule: The

Gantt Chart and the Network Diagram should not look like waterfalls, wherein each task has

only one predecessor and only one successor. That is not only unrealistic, but is problematic for

most projects. There should be parallelism. This means that typical tasks should have multiple

successors and/or predecessors.

Please ensure that your .mpp file includes at least the following fields (columns) visible in the
left-hand table portion of the Gantt chart view or the Tracking Gantt view:

• All fields from ITP-1

• Start date [a default field]

• Finish date [a default field]

• Predecessors [a default field]

• Successors

Additionally, please ensure that the Critical Tasks box in the Format tab is checked.

TTP-4 – Project Resources and Costs

Please ensure that your .mpp file includes at least the following fields (columns) visible in the

left-hand table portion of the Gantt chart view or the Tracking Gantt view and also in the

Resource Sheet view:

• All fields from ITP-1 and TTP-3

• Resource Name

• Material

• Type

• Group

• Standard Rate

• Cost per Unit

• Cost

• Work

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ITP-3 – Project Risk Assessment

Please ensure that your risk register spreadsheet file includes at least the following fields

(columns):

• WBS ID

• Task Name or brief description

• Task Level (see note in assignment instructions)

• Risk Description

• Risk Category (Risk Type)

• Risk Probability

• Risk Consequences (Impact)

• Initial Risk Score (Probability * Impact)

• Risk Handling Category

• Risk Handling/Control Plan

• Risk Owner (Risk Manager)

Additional suggested fields:

• Est. Cost of Mitigation

• Remaining Probability after Mitigation

• Remaining Consequences (Impact) after Handling

• Final Risk Score

• Current Risk Status

• Notes and discussion

TTP-5 – Consolidated Project Management Plan
Please ensure that your .mpp file includes at least the following fields (columns) visible in the
left-hand table portion of the Gantt chart view or the Tracking Gantt view:

• All fields from ITP-3

TTP-6 – Project Execution, Tracking and Changes
Please ensure that your .mpp file includes at least the following fields (columns) visible in the

left-hand table portion of the Tracking Gantt view:

• All fields from TTP-5

• Actual Start

• Actual Finish

• Actual Duration

• Baseline Start

• Baseline Finish

• Baseline Duration

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On Resource Sheet view:

• All fields from TTP-4

• Baseline Cost

Additional suggested fields:

• Earned Value – EV (BCWP)

• PV (BCWS)

• AC (ACWP)

• Schedule Variance (SV)

• Cost Variance (CV)

• Estimate at Completion (EAC)

• Budget at Completion (BAC)

• Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

• Cost Performance Index (CPI)

• Percent Complete