Work Breakdown Structure and Project Schedule
The Work Breakdown Structure helps break the project down into manageable parts in a process called decomposition. The number of levels in the WBS is related to the project profile. For this component of the project plan you will and develop a hierarchical WBS for the construction phase of the St. Dismas ALF project. The specific parts of the St. Dismas Assisted Living Facility case study you will need to prepare the Work Breakdown Structure for the project plan are listed below.
Meredith, J.R., Mantel, Jr. S.J., Shafer, S.M., & Sutton, M.M. (2017). Project management in practice (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Part 5: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Program Plan—5 (pp. 179-181)
- Friendly Assisted Living Facility Construction Project Plan (pp. 181)
A project manager is responsible for developing and managing a plan to execute the work of the project in a way that will deliver the product or service when it is needed by the client. Depending on the profile of the project, the process, time, and resources needed to develop and manage the project schedule can vary significantly.
Project planning and scheduling is both an art and a science. There is a logical and methodical process for developing a network diagram and calculating the time it takes to complete a project. There is also a creative process for developing a logical sequence of activities and determining relationships between activities.
- For this component of the project plan you will develop a Gantt Chart and a Network Diagram for the construction phase of the Friendly Assisted Living Facility project.
The specific parts of the Friendly Assisted Living Facility case study you will need to prepare the Gantt Chart and Network Diagram for the project plan are listed below.
Meredith, J.R., Mantel, Jr. S.J., Shafer, S.M., & Sutton, M.M. (2017). Project management in practice (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Part 5: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Program Plan—5 (pp. 171-181)
- Friendly Assisted Living Facility Construction Project Plan (pp. 181)
Refer to the Project Plan Template for specific instructions on how to complete these components of the project plan.
PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT INFORMATION!
The focus this week is on WBS and project scheduling. This is one of the more complex and technical aspects of project management. You need to develop a good understanding of WBS and decomposition of work packages. The Final Project for this week will test that knowledge and I will be looking for well decomposed WBS. You also need to create a logical Network diagram and a Gantt chart. Complete the assigned reading as it will help you understand these concepts. The work this week will be the Project Milestone Schedule that you will insert into your project plan document for Week 5.
You will find examples of the WBS in the PMBOK-6th edition on pages 158 – 160. The WBS can be done using MS Word, EXCEL, PowerPoint, or VISIO. The same is true of the Gantt chart and network diagram although it does take more time to do them this way than it would if you used software that automatically draws the Gantt and network diagram from the WBS. There are a number of free tools and helpful websites available for creating project Gantt Charts. Here is a sample you might want to explore.
How to create a Gantt Chart in MS EXCEL
Free Gantt Chart template for MS PowerPoint
SmartSheet
How to create a Gantt Chart in MS Word
Free Gantt Chart template for MS EXCEL
Various free Gantt Chart templates
Gantt Project free application
Furthermore, attached is a file with an example of how to create a network diagram.
