Kim Nguyen was leading a meeting to create the work breakdown structure (WBS) for her companys IT upgrade project. This project was necessary because of several high-priority, Internet-based applications the company was developing. The IT upgrade project involved creating and implementing a plan to make all employees IT assets meet new corporate standards within nine months. These standards specified the minimum requirements for each desktop or laptop computer, including the type of processor, amount of memory, hard disk size, type of network connection, security features, and software. Kim knew that to perform the upgrades, the project team would first have to create a detailed inventory of all the current hardware, networks, and software in the entire company of 2,000 employees.

Kim had worked with other stakeholders to develop a project charter and initial scope statement. The project charter included rough cost and schedule estimates for the project and signatures of key stakeholders; the initial scope statement provided a start in defining the hardware, software, and network requirements as well as other information related to the project scope. Kim called a meeting with her project team and other stakeholders to further define the scope of the project. She wanted to get everyones ideas on what the project involved, who would do what, and how they could avoid scope creep. The companys new CEO, Walter Schmidt, was known for keeping a close eye on major projects. The company had started using a new project management information system that let everyone know the status of projects at a detailed and high level. Kim knew that a good WBS was the foundation for scope, time, and cost performance, but she had never led a team in creating one or allocating costs based on a WBS.

QUESTION: Where should she begin?