DIRECTIONS
The assignment focuses on your own understanding of the team's group project. Early in the conceptual phase of a new product, team members should begin to think about all of the things that need to be done to progress from the casual discussions about the product, to product deployment and life cycle servicing.
There are many ways to approach and solve such problems, and therefore there are many acceptable solutions to your problem. Each individual team members approach will most likely be different based upon their own skill set, knowledge about the product and confidence level they have in the ability to build, deploy and service it.
In this exercise, you are required to watch the Blackboard lecture on Work Breakdown structures. You may want to view other approaches about WBS development on the Internet.
In your 3 - 4 pages, I will be looking for a WBS Chart, a WBS Table and written explanations that are not obvious from your two diagrams. Since you're project is still in the conceptual phase, the paper should be based upon your current understanding of the how the product should be developed and supported.
I assume this view will change later as you integrate your thinking with others and the team becomes more knowledgeable through their feasibility research and discussions.
After reading your paper, I should be able to get a sense for how you would partition the work tasks to accomplish the project. You will have to identify tasks at a very high level in order to fit them into the 3 -4 double spaced, 12 pt font, pages.
This is not a test of your technical knowledge, but an exercise to demonstrate your comprehension of how to decompose ambiguous (not completely defined) problems and describe the work tasks needed to complete them.
This is an important methodology used in innovation and new product development.
Work Breakdown Structure
A key to creating a successful project schedule, is to identify all the work of the project before you consider delivery dates and resource constraints. This helps a team objectively identify everything that needs to be done without subconsciously leaving out tasks in order to fit pre-determined dates.
The WBS step helps accomplish the following key objectives:
- Develops an objective, rational view of the amount of work required.
- Provides a basis for then identifying the skills and resources required for the project. This step helps you to develop the staffing requirements.
- Provides a framework for clearly defining work tasks and delegating responsibility. This step helps identifying work groups and responsibilities.
- Lays a foundation for analyzing dependencies and managing risks. This step helps list your ASSUMPTIONS and track them as RISKS.
- Lays a foundation for developing a bottoms-up estimate for the project schedule. Allows the working staff to respond to the tops down plan.
Identify a few major work groups to form the top levels of your WBS.
Select these based on the best way to organize the work for this project given the project complexity, participants current knowledge, how the work will be distributed across your organization, and how the work will be tracked and managed.
Work Breakdown Structure
The US military is very particular about getting projects started, managed and delivered on time and in working order.
The link below is a point to the MIL-STD specification for a Work Breakdown Structure.
Search the Internet for other methods of creating and presenting your Work Breakdown Structure.
COSTS in this Feasibility Analysis will be based on your Best Guess. Costs are held a secrets within organizations. This is done to protect from other companies trying to undercut your operations, one department after another.
Here are some current cost estimates for your Budget Planning:
Engineer(s) - $2/minute, $120/hour, $4,800/week, $249,600/year Technician(s) - $1/minute,$60/hour, $2,400/week, $124,800/year
Assembler(s) - $.50/minute, $30/hour, $1,200/week, $62,400/year General Workers - $.50/minute, $30/hour, $1,200/week, $62,400/year
Marketing/Sales - Varies depending on sales expectations; dollars and volume Others - you may make up any reasonable numbers you like for the analysis
Attachment:- Work Breakdown Structure.rar