Assignment 2: Estimating A Project

"components" are major groupings of work packages

Project management practices are used in most organizations, as following them provides a time-proven pathway to success. One of the most critical activities is being able to accurately estimate the time it will take to complete the entire project. Given the following scenario, use Excel to create a work breakdown schedule.

Your department is tasked with replacing some desktop PCs in the organization. The CIO wants an estimate of hours it will take, so that costs can be calculated. A quick inventory reveals that:

• You need to replace the PCs for 5 departments (Payroll, Sales, HR, Marketing, IT)
• Each needs to be disconnected and hauled away to the onsite storage room to be dealt with later;
• A new PC needs to be installed in place of each old PC
• A software suite needs to be loaded to each new PC
• Each new PC needs to be briefly tested following the installation

Assume that:

• there are 8-10 PCs in any one department.
• the same people can do all of the tasks in the bulleted list above (i.e., disconnect, install, load software, test)
• you will do one department at a time (hint as to how to set this up)

Create a list-based work breakdown structure, with level 1 as the project, level 2 as high level components, and subsequent levels (3, 4...) as the work packages. Word each work package as a noun. Place estimated hours on each level, rolling up the lower levels to the level above.

Remember, no resources are shown on a WBS. Just work packages and estimates.

Example for formatting purposes:

Example with actual tasks (note: work packages are nouns, not verbs):

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level "n" Project Components Components Work packages Indenting each level helps with readability Hours 18 14 5 5 Task Name 1.0 Project name 1.1 Level one name 1.1.1 Level two work package 1.1.2 Level two work package 1.1.3 Level two work package 1.1.3.1 Level three if necessary 1.1.3.2 Level three if necessary 1.1.4 Level two again 1.1.5 Level two again 4 2 2 Note: 1.1.3 is a summation of 1.1.3.1 + 1.1.3.2 Note: 1.1 is a summation of 1.1.1 + 1.1.2 + 1.1.3 Task Name 1.0 Clean House 1.1 Clean bathroom 1.1.1 Counters cleared off 1.1.2 Mirrors polished 1.1.3 Floors cleaned 1.1.3.1 Floors swept 1.1.3.2 Floors mopped 1.1.4 Clean Living Room 1.1.5 Clean ... etc Hours 4.50 1.50 0.25 0.50 0.75 0.25 0.50 2.00 4.50 = 1.50 +.75 + 2 + 1 1.50 = .25 +.50 +.75 etc. 1.00 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level "n" Project Components Components Work packages Indenting each level helps with readability Hours 18 14 5 5 Task Name 1.0 Project name 1.1 Level one name 1.1.1 Level two work package 1.1.2 Level two work package 1.1.3 Level two work package 1.1.3.1 Level three if necessary 1.1.3.2 Level three if necessary 1.1.4 Level two again 1.1.5 Level two again 4 2 2 Note: 1.1.3 is a summation of 1.1.3.1 + 1.1.3.2 Note: 1.1 is a summation of 1.1.1 + 1.1.2 + 1.1.3 Task Name 1.0 Clean House 1.1 Clean bathroom 1.1.1 Counters cleared off 1.1.2 Mirrors polished 1.1.3 Floors cleaned 1.1.3.1 Floors swept 1.1.3.2 Floors mopped 1.1.4 Clean Living Room 1.1.5 Clean ... etc Hours 4.50 1.50 0.25 0.50 0.75 0.25 0.50 2.00 4.50 = 1.50 +.75 + 2 + 1 1.50 = .25 +.50 +.75 etc. 1.00