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After my brief introduction in the last post to what a Work Breakdown Structure or WBS is, let me now turn into what inputs are required to actually creating one.

5.4.1  Create WBS:  Inputs

5.4.1.1  Project Management Plan

The relevant component of the Project Management Plan namely, the Scope Management Plan, should spell out how to do all the other processes in he scope knowledge area, including this one, process 5.4 Create WBS.

5.4.1.2  Project Documents

The project documents used as inputs into this process are

• Project Scope Statement–output of process 5.3 Define Scope
• Requirements Documentation–output of process 5.2 Collect Requirements

5.4.1.3 Enterprise Environmental Factors

• Industry-specific WBS standards–these are standards that are relevant to the nature of the project that may serve as external reference sources for creating the WBS,

5.4.1.4 Organizational Process Assets

• Policies, procedures, and templates for the WBS (usually maintained by the Project Management Office)
• Project files from previous projects (again, why re-invent the wheel?)
• Lessons learned from previous projects

In the next post, I will discuss the tools and techniques for this process, the main of which is decomposition, or the process of breaking down the scope from the deliverables listed in the Project Scope Statement (the output of process 5.3 Define Scope) down to the smaller, more manageable elements called work packages.

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