Week 5 Discussion A,B - Creating the Work Breakdown Structure

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Week 5 Discussion

Discussion Topic 5A: Creating the Work Breakdown Structure

According to PMI, the project scope can be elaborated using a scope statement to identify the major deliverables associated with the project and the acceptance criteria for each deliverable. This is done by decomposing the project scope into lower levels of detail in the Work Breakdown Structure. This planning tool is a hierarchical decomposition of the  total scope of work to be carried out by the project to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. The WBS is used throughout the project planning, execution, and closing and it has many benefits. However, creating a WBS is not an easy task; it takes knowledge of the create WBS process, knowledge of the project/product scope, others need to be involved in creating the WBS (subject matter experts), it takes time to complete the WBS for larger projects - it's an imprecise process because it is subjective of how much detail you should include in the WBS. 

In this Discussion, put yourself in the role of project manager and explain the relationship between the project scope, the WBS, and WBS Dictionary. Identify at least ONE benefit of creating the WBS and thoroughly discuss this benefit to convince your team that you need to create the WBS for a project.

Discussion Topic 5B: Establishing the Scope Baseline

Defining the project scope results in a detailed description of the project and the resulting product. One of the benefits of this process is that it describes the product, service, or results boundaries and acceptance criteria. This week, your team will develop the scope statement and then decompose the project scope into a representative work breakdown structure. Using what you learned from the reading this week, describe the process (inputs, tools, techniques, outputs) that you might use in a project team to establish the project scope baseline for your team project. What will be included in this scope baseline and what is the importance of this document?