DR.D. Y.

PATIL COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE

AKURDI,PUNE

21-22
CONSTRUCTION
MANAGEMENT-1

PROF: MANALI TULPULE

SUB CODE: 2019CM101

NAME:- PARTTH BAWALE

ROLL NO. :- 1MA101
QUESTIONAIRE:

1. What does project work breakdown imply?

2. How are project work breakdown levels classified?

3. What are the methods used for identifying project activities?

4. How is the duration of an activity assessed?

5. What are the elements of an activity cost?

6. What are the benefits of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

technique?

7. How is the duration of an activity defined?

8. List down and explain the Applications of Work Breakdown

Structure.

9. What are Good Quality WBS Core Attributes?

 WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
1. WHAT DOES THE PROJECT WORKDOWN IMPLY?

 WBS is a hierarchical and incremental decomposition of the project into

phases, deliverables, and work packages.
 It is a tree structure, which shows a subdivision of effort required to achieve
an objective, for example, a program, project, and contract.
 In a project or contract, the WBS is developed by starting with the end objective
and successively subdividing it into manageable components in terms of size,
duration, and responsibility (e.g., systems, subsystems, components, tasks,
subtasks, and work packages) which include all steps necessary to achieve the
objective.
 The WBS provides a common framework for the natural development of the
overall planning and control of a contract and is the basis for dividing work into
definable increments from which the statement of work can be developed and
technical, schedule, cost, and labour hour reporting can be established.
 It permits the summing of subordinate costs for tasks, materials, etc., into their
successively higher level "parent" tasks, materials, etc.
 The WBS is organized around the primary products of the project (or planned
outcomes) instead of the work needed to produce the products (planned
actions).
 A well-designed WBS makes it easy to assign each project activity to one and
only one terminal element of the WBS.
 In addition to its function in cost accounting, the WBS also helps map
requirements from one level of system specification to another, for example, a
cross-reference matrix mapping functional requirements to high level or low-
level design documents.
 The WBS may be displayed horizontally in outline form or vertically as a tree
structure (like an organization chart).
 The development of the WBS normally occurs at the start of a project and
precedes detailed project and task planning.
 2. HOW ARE PROJECT WORK BREAKDOWN LEVELS
CLASSIFIED?

To create an effective WBS, it's important to understand each of the four WBS
levels. Project managers use these levels to prioritize and organize tasks based on
what items need to be completed first to complete the final project. The four WBS
levels you can implement in your organization are:

 THE TOP LEVEL

The top level of a WBS states the project's title and the final deliverable. You can
start creating your WBS with this section by stating the overall scope of the project.
Use clear language to identify what the completed project should look like so
everyone on your team understands what goal they are working toward. The top
level of a WBS can be a great tool to communicate your customer's expectations
about the final project.

For example, if you are the project manager for a software development
project, the top level of your WBS may simply state the name of the project you're
working on, such as an aircraft software system or an integrated library management
system.

 CONTROLS ACCOUNT
Next, list the controls account WBS level underneath the top level. The controls
account level outlines the main phases of a project and the key deliverables that
need to be achieved. It can also include the major parts, systems or features that
need to be delivered in the final project to meet the customer's expectations.

For example, if you're the project manager for a software development

project, some of the main components you might list at the controls account level of
your WBS include a database system, a search function and a chat feature. This can
help you ensure your final project meets all the necessary criteria and help you
improve customer satisfaction.
 WORK PACKAGES
The work packages level of a WBS appears underneath the controls account level.
This level breaks the key deliverables down into smaller, more manageable tasks. In
order to be successful at the controls account level, teams need to first accomplish
the tasks presented in the work packages level.

For example, in order for your team to complete the database system at the
controls account level, they may need to develop the software application, servers
and data structure at the work packages level first. You can create a new work
package for each unique task listed at the control account level to group items
together and help your team stay organized.

 ACTIVITIES
The final WBS level is the activities level. This level includes all the tasks that need
to be completed before a team can work on the tasks listed in the work packages
level.

For example, in order for your team to finish developing the software
application at the work packages level, they may need to configure and install
database software or integrate the database server with other network components.
The tasks listed under the activities level are the smallest items to complete. You
can assign each activity to an individual team member to improve productivity.

3. WHAT ARE THE METHODS USED FOR IDENTIFYING

PROJECT ACTIVITIES?
 1. Project management techniques make planning and managing projects
easier and more effective.
2. There are many project management techniques to choose from.
3. Here are five of the best that every project manager should know in order to
control their projects and steer them to successful ends.

 WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS):

a. A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a way to organize the work into
smaller, more manageable pieces.
b. According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), WBS
is a “deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be
executed by the team.”
c. WBS is graphic representation of every task in the project.
d. At the top is the final product with a line that goes down the page to a box
(or boxes) that represent the larger tasks which lead to that completed
project.
e. Each of these boxes are then attached with lines that go under it to smaller
tasks.
f. Divide and Conquer - This provides a sort of task map for the project.

 GANTT CHART:
a. A Gantt chart is another visual project management technique, but this one
has even more applications for a project manager.
 b. Gantt charts can help with more than planning and scheduling tasks over one
or multiple projects.
c. Each task can now be assigned to individual team members and project
managers can automate notifications on upcoming deadlines to keep the
project on track.

 PERT:
a. PERT is an acronym that stands for program evaluation and review technique.
b. It‟s a project management technique to help with time estimates.
c. Scheduling is critical to getting a project completed on time, obviously, but also
within the set budget.
d. PERT breaks down tasks into detailed activities, by using the WBS discussed
above, and then add these to a Gantt chart to identify those activities that are
interdependent.
 CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM) :
a. Critical Path Method (CPM) is a cornerstone of project management techniques.
b. CPM requires that you construct a project model that includes a list of all tasks
or a WBS, the duration to complete of each of those tasks, what dependencies if
any link the tasks and the endpoints, such as milestones and deliverables, for the
project.
c. Therefore, as a project management technique, CPM is a sequence of tasks that
add up to the longest overall duration, whether there is float (whether free float,
which is a dependent task or total float, with is the overall project) or not.
 KANBAN:
a. Kanban is used in lean manufacturing and looks like a series of cards on a
board, which is used to visualize the workflow.
b. Kanban can be used as a project management technique to help monitor and
manage projects by putting the emphasis on continual delivery without placing
too much of a burden on the team.
c. Kanban helps the project team work more efficiently together.
d. Managers get the transparency they want to see potential blocks and reallocate
resources quickly to keep production moving ahead smoothly.
4. HOW IS THE DURATION OF AN ACTIVITY
ASSESSED?

 The estimation process requires some input information and documents and
implies the use of one or multiple estimation techniques. The following
subsections elaborate on these requirements.
 The estimation of activity durations should generally be done by the person who
is the most familiar with the activity‟s type of work. This is even more
important if an estimation technique is used that relies on the expertise and
experience of the estimator(s) instead of historical data.
 The output of duration estimations is always a number of time periods (e.g.
days, weeks, months; source). The level of confidence and whether it is a single
estimate or a range depend on the estimation technique that is applied.
 Regardless of the estimation technique, it is good practice that a document
accompanies the estimated number that sets out all underlying assumptions and
constraints, the estimate ranges and the expected level of accuracy. In PMI
terminology, this document is called the „basis of estimates‟.

Expert Analogous Parametric Bottom-up Three-Point

Judgement Estimating Estimating Estimating Estimating
Input Expertise and Historic or Historic or Scope of Estimation
Data experience of market data: market data: work, techniques
the experts Values of Parameters and activities
previous similar values of similar
projects projects
Method Experts Adoption and Using the Estimation of Three-point
estimate the adjustment of historical durations at a duration estimates
time it takes to historical durations per granular level consist of
complete the duration parameter unit (e.g. optimistic,
work in scope, observations for to determine the activities or pessimistic and
either as a top- similar types of expected below) and most likely
down or a activities (top- duration of aggregate estimates. They can
bottom-up down) future activities them to be converted into
estimate higher levels final estimates with
a triangular or
PERT/Beta
distribution
Output Several Duration Duration Duration Final duration
Type estimate for an estimate for an estimate for estimates for
activity activity an activity activities, standard
 deviations of
estimates

According to the PMI, activity duration estimates are subject to progressive

elaboration. This implies that they could be rather rough estimates at the initial stage
of scheduling the project. During the course of the project, they are then enhanced and
become more accurate as more information and details are known.

 EXPERT JUDGEMENT
Expert judgment means that an estimator or a group of estimators determine the
expected duration of an activity based on their experience and expertise in the
respective area.
The accuracy of these types of estimates can vary greatly. It depends on the
characteristics of the work and the experience of the estimators.
Expert judgment can also be applied to supplement one of the other types of
estimates, e.g. in cases where historical data are only applicable for portions of the
work.

 ANALOGOUS ESTIMATING
Analogous estimating is a technique that involves using either historical data or
the experience of estimators to determine the expected duration of an activity. It is also
referred to as top-down estimating.

 PARAMETRIC ESTIMATING
The Parametric estimating technique makes use of historical data and statistical
approaches to predict the durations of planned activities.
This can be one of the most accurate methods if the data availability, quality
and statistical correlations are strong. However, it may require some efforts and
resources to perform the estimation.

 FORMULAS AND CALCULATION

The fore mentioned estimation techniques come with their own way of
computation. Parametric estimation requires a statistical correlation and subsequent
calculation (ranging from a rule of three to complex statistical models). Expert
judgment and analogous estimating are typically done without calculations.
When referring to the “formula of duration estimates”, people usually think of
the three-point estimation method.
Assuming a triangular distribution of the three estimates the calculation of the
final estimate is:
 E = (O + M + P) / 3

where:

E = Expected amount of time using three-point estimation,

O = Optimistic duration estimate,
M = Most likely duration estimate,
P = Pessimistic duration estimate.
5. WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF AN ACTIVITY
COST?

 The Activity-Based Costing (ABC) is a costing system which focuses on

activities performed to produce products.
 ABC is that costing in which costs are first traced to activities and then to
products.
 This costing system assumes that activities are responsible for the incurrence of
costs and products create the demands for activities.
 Costs are charged to products based on individual product‟s use of each activity.
 In traditional product costing system, costs are, first, traced not to activities but
to an organisational unit, such as department or plant and then to products.
 Under ABC, activity and product/service costs are determined based on the
primary principle that activities consume resources (costs). Products and
services (cost objects), in-turn, consume the activities. This principle is
fundamentally different from traditional costing systems whose premise is that
product/services consume resources directly, and activity costs are not
calculated at all.

 FIVE BASIC COMPONENTS OF ABC :

a. Resources
b. Resource Drivers
c. Activities
d. Activity Cost Drivers, and
e. Cost Objects

a. Resources:

 Resources are what organizations spend their money on—the

categories of costs that are recorded.
 Resource is defined as an economic or money element that is
applied or used in the performance of activities.
 Salaries and materials, for examples, are resources used in the
performance of activities.
 Additional examples of resources include repair, inspection, rent,
depreciation, utilities, insurance, and supplies. Most ABC
systems currently exclude costs like income taxes and interest
 expense that are not used in the performance of activities.

b. Resource Drivers:

 Resource drivers are the basis for tracing resources to activities.

 Resource driver is defined as a measure of the quantity of
resource consumed by an activity.
 An example of a resource driver is the percentage of total square
feet of space occupied by an activity.
 This factor is used to trace a portion of the cost of operating the
facilities to the activity.

c. Activities:

 Activities represent work performed in an organization.

 The cost of activities is determined by tracing resource to activities using the
resource drivers.
 An example of how the salaries of a receiving department of a manufacturing
company might be traced to receiving department activities is illustrated in
Exhibit 4-2. In this example, the resource is receiving department salaries.
 The activities are as follows receive materials, unload trucks, move material,
schedule receipts, expedite material, and resolve vender errors.
 The resource driver is a percentage of people‟s time devoted to each receiving
department activity.

d. Activity cost drivers:

 Like a resource driver that is used to trace resource to activities, an activity cost
driver is used to trace activity costs to cost objects.
 Activity driver is defined as a measure of the frequency and intensity of the
demands placed on activities by cost objects.
 An activity driver is used to assign costs to cost objects.
 A cost driver is an activity which generates cost.
 A cost driver is a factor, such as the level of activity or volume, that causally
affects costs (over a given time span).
 That is, a cause-and-effect relationship exists between a change in the level of
activity or volume and a change in the level of the total costs of that cost object.
 Thus, cost drivers signify factors, forces or events that determine the costs of
activities. Based on activity usage (consumption), activity costs are traced to
cost objects.

e. Cost Object:

 Cost objects, can be any customer, product, service, contract, project, or other
work unit for which a separate cost measurement is desired.
 The most common cost object is product or service cost.
 Activity drivers are used to trace activity costs to cost objects.
 6. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF WORK BREAKDOWN
STRUCTURE (WBS) TECHNIQUE?

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a tool that can be used for projects, programs,
and even initiatives to understand the work that has to be done to successfully produce
a deliverable(s). The benefits of creating a WBS include:

 it defines and organizes the work required

 it facilitates the quick development of a schedule by allocating effort estimates
to specific sections of the WBS
 it can be used to identify potential scope risks if it has a branch that is not well
defined
 it provides a visual of entire scope
 it can be used to identify communication points
 it provides a visual of impacts when deliverables are falling behind
 it can be used to show and assign accountabilities and responsibilities
 it can show control points and milestones
 it provides a way to estimates project costs
 it ensures no important deliverables are forgotten
 it can assist with resource allocation
 it provides a proven and repeatable approach to planning projects
 it provides a tool for team brainstorming and collaboration
 it provides an opportunity to engage the team and make them feel invested in
the planning
 7. HOW IS THE DURATION OF AN ACTIVITY
DEFINED?

 The purpose of estimating activity durations is to determine the amount of time it

takes to complete an activity.
 Estimate activity durations are a process of the Project Schedule
Management knowledge area according to PMI‟s Guide to the Project Management
Body of Knowledge.
 This process requires several input parameters, which include, in particular, the
scope of work and the list and characteristics of planned activities as well as the
resources that are deployed to perform the work.

 The PMBOK lists:

 Expert judgment,
 Analogous estimating,
 Parametric estimating,
 Bottom-up estimating, and
 Three-point estimation

As techniques to determine duration estimates. Read on for an overview of these

estimation techniques.
 The estimation of durations is normally done on the level of activities (see
below image).
 Determining the total duration of a work package or the whole project requires
scheduling of activities, taking their individual durations into account.
 This includes the consideration of dependencies between activities and often
involves the development of a critical path (the longest chain of activities to
achieve the desired outcome).
 It is therefore typically not accurate to simply calculate the sum of activity
durations if you determine the duration of work packages or whole projects.
 This is because the sum of activity durations may overstate (sometimes
understate) the total time to completion of a project as some activities can run in
parallel while others are dependent on the completion of a preceding activity.
 8. LIST DOWN AND EXPLAIN THE APPLICATIONS OF
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE?

The applications of work breakdown structure are:-

a. Managing project scope

b. Managing project time schedule
c. Managing project costs

 Managing Project Scope -WBS is a simple basic tool that defines the entire
scope of the project. WBS separates items of work into deliverable components
and establishes the relationship of the deliverables with the scope of the project
to be completed. WBS creates a deliverable oriented hierarchical top-down
structure that provides the view of the entire project work scope. WBS contains
the entire scope of work thus reducing the chances of missing a deliverable item
or task. In short, WBS is essential for the success of the project.

 Managing Project Time Schedule -WBS is the basic input for developing
project time schedule. It is the backbone for developing and managing the time
schedule. The deliverables in the WBS are decomposed into tasks, work
packages and activities. It enables identifying, arranging and listing the project
activities in a sequential order.

 Managing Project Costs -WBS aids in developing a hierarchical view of cost

breakdown. It helps in costing, cost planning, budgeting, accounting,
monitoring and controlling costs. Such structures are used for developing a cost
codification system in BOQ, Bill-of-Materials and Accounting Cost.
 9. WHAT ARE GOOD QUALITY WBS CORE
ATTRIBUTES?

 GOOD QUALITY WBS ATTRIBUTES:-

There is a general understanding that WBS is the foundation upon which the
project management structure stands but there is little agreement regarding the
characteristics of a quality WBS. A good quality WBS must full fill the minimum set
of core attributes that should be there in all the WBS. In addition, the project specific
user-related and user-specific characteristics should also be included where it is
applicable. The guidelines given in the subsequent paragraphs can be followed to
determine the quality of a good WBS.

GOOD QUALITY WBS CORE ATTRIBUTES:-

The good WBS of all the projects should have the following attributes:
 It is deliverable-oriented and has full scope of the project work including
internal and external works;
 It has a coding system that generally conforms to the hierarchy;
 It has hierarchical decomposition of the work in that each level of
decomposition includes 100% of the work of the parent element;
 It can be well understood and executed by the project team;
 It creates the required deliverables and its each descending level represents
an increasing detailed definition of the project work;
 It is decomposed till the lowest desired level is reached;
 The lowest desired level could be up to work packages or activities;
 In general, the project time schedules are best monitored at activity level
and the budget costs are best monitored at the work package level;
 It is updated regularly and the performance is communicated to all
concerned; and
 It has all components listed in the WBS dictionary.
GOOD QUALITY WBS: SPECIFIC USER RELATED
ATTRIBUTES:-

The Project Specific user-related attributes are in addition to the core attributes.
Such characteristic of WBS include but are not limited to the following
• Decomposition of a project with uncertainty may have to be restricted to a higher
level to exercise control;
• In case of high priority projects, WBS may have to be decomposed to the lowest
operational level;
• WBS of some projects may need addition of special type of items like designing,
procurement, contracting etc.;
• Some projects may require accountability assignment at certain levels.

 POORLY DEVELOPED WBS CONSEQUENCES

A poorly developed WBS will involve frequent changes in plan, procurement,

resource induction, unclear assignments, disputes and conflicts. Such changes are
bound to have time and cost overruns.