Hello everyone, I am Lao Yuan.
Why do many people have a lot of tools and methods, but still can't do their jobs well?
Have you ever wondered what kind of person is a person who "can work"?
Luo Zhenyu gave an explanation of "being able to work" in the Inspiration Club.
"A person who can work can draw the ultimate picture in his mind."
This ultimate diagram is the WBS, which begins with the end and then refines it into specific executable steps.
From this sentence, there are two key words: "ultimate" + "draw". One is the result and the other is the process.
In summary, it is your "sense of purpose + decomposition ability".
A person who can start from the result, disassemble the specific steps step by step and implement them well to achieve the predetermined goal is a person who can "work".
Are you a "workable" person?
Although it makes sense, most people don't do it.
In the face of projects or tasks with tight schedules and little experience, it is inevitable that they will be at a loss. Many project managers or leaders will worry that making plans will waste everyone's working time, and they will just slap their heads and do it without thinking, and solve problems when they encounter them. Always less than satisfactory.
WBS is a tool that can help you sort out your clues and plan according to your goals.
Instead of choosing to take the blame later, it is better to learn to use WBS to "dismantle mines" in the early stage, especially for such projects with no mature experience, you must follow the WBS work breakdown structure method to "dismantle" the project.
1. First, a classic question
Let's start with the old question - we all know that it takes three steps to put an elephant in a freezer:
Although this is a brain teaser when I was a child, everyone knows that listening to music is enough, but many people really do this when planning.
In terms of action, how many steps are required to put an elephant into a refrigerator is a typical work breakdown structure. The above three steps are also necessary steps, but they only decompose the superficial work content, and the actual content is far more than that.
In real life, if you want you to put the elephant in the refrigerator, only these three steps are obviously impossible.
First, we need to figure out the mission requirements: is it going to be frozen or refrigerated? Should it be refrigerated alive or portioned and frozen? still……
Second, need to measure the size of the elephant, consider custom-made refrigerators or search for suitable refrigerators all over the world? still……
Third, how to put it in? Carry it in if you are dizzy, or let it go in by itself, or you need a knife...
Therefore, for any method, tool, or template, it is necessary to clarify the logic and essence behind them, what problems are they trying to solve, what principles are there, and what scenarios are they suitable for?
By understanding the basic logic and rules, practice and digest to form your own standard method.
Only in this way, when using tools to solve problems, will not be solved by tools.
2. So, what is the use of WBS?
The greatest use of WBS is to help you disassemble tasks and make them practical.
Or the elephant, how do you eat an elephant?
The answer, of course, is: one bite at a time.
Completing a big goal is like eating an elephant. It needs to be gradually decomposed into small task units layer by layer, level by level, so that each small task unit can be perfectly completed, and the big goal , and naturally it is perfectly completed.
The more detailed benefits and functions can be summed up in three points:
01 In the face of time pressure, WBS is your third choice besides carrying and escaping
When time is tight and tasks are heavy, it is often impossible to accurately evaluate a large work package. After it is subdivided and decomposed, relatively accurate working time and human resources can be evaluated.
why?
Because it can clarify the entire project structure, understand the overall picture of the project, and help you find the entry point by analyzing each node, and coordinate the manpower, time, and cost required for the entire project;
02 relieve pain and blockage? Uncover project details, early detection and early resolution
As a project leader, you must have experienced such an experience: you didn’t pay attention to small details, and you didn’t see the key details of one or two words clearly, which led to big troubles. The “little fire” finally pulled you into a “firefighter” ".
Through functional decomposition, it is completely convenient for you to understand and control the progress of the project and avoid risks; this is probably the feeling of strategizing.
The task kanban is visualized, some invisible work is made explicit, the explicit work is structured, and the structured work standard version is not a proper and efficient organization.
03Delineate responsibilities and rights, and easily respond to new demands
Subdivide the scope of the project and draw a clear line for the project; when a requirement is raised, it can be clearly distinguished whether the proposed requirement is a new requirement or a changed requirement, which is convenient for the project manager to manage the project.
3. How to get a good WBS
If you want to play a game well, the first step is to understand the rules. On the premise that the rules are clear, if you can "play" the rules well, add technical assistance, etc., you must be a game master.
01 "Abiding by the rules" - the decomposition principle of WBS
WBS looks like just a picture, but it also has its "rules of the game":
1. 100% principle
The split tasks must contain 100% of all deliverables, and the subtasks decomposed at each level must also cover 100% of its parent task category.
For example, in a development project, all content modules must be covered when the task is disassembled, and then different modules are disassembled in more detail.
2. There must be a reasonable work package size
The work package is not as detailed as possible, but deliverable, assignable, and responsible. The minimum work package to be decomposed must ensure that one person can complete it within 80 hours. If it is greater than this range, it needs to continue to decompose, because a large work package will have hidden risks.
3. Elements are mutually exclusive
Mutual exclusion is mutual independence and complete exhaustion.
"Mutual independence" means not reinventing the wheel; only "complete exhaustion" can ensure that there are no omissions and no mistakes.
For example, if you coexist the purchase of fruit and the purchase example, it is an unreasonable split.
4. Around output
When enumerating WBS work packages, plan in terms of expected outputs, not just action events. To speak human words is to focus on the target and do things.
Just like children playing with mud, the raw materials are right, but the final result of each person is completely different.
So even if the working steps are the same, if the output is not formulated around, it is likely that the combined combination is far from the expected one.
As a project leader, to avoid such a situation, you must plan based on the output you want, rather than just planning action events.
Start running from the same starting point, but the direction is wrong, and naturally you are getting farther and farther away from the end point.
02 "Auxiliary"
1-MECE principles are mutually independent and completely exhaustive
It sounds complicated, but it is actually very simple. The MECE rule is like a jigsaw puzzle. Put all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together to form a complete picture. If the pieces are put together correctly, there must be no more pieces and no less pieces in the end, which is just right. complete picture.
When MECE is used in project WBS decomposition, it is to ensure that there is no overlap and no omission - overlapping costs increase, omissions, and huge risks.
2-Rolling planning principle granularity near fine far coarse
In the early stage of the project, a lot of information needs to be confirmed gradually over time. If some information is not clear, making a detailed decomposition will cause an ineffective waste of management time and is meaningless.
03 Decomposition of WBS
There are 7 common decomposition methods of WBS:
① Decomposition according to the physical structure of the product ② Decomposition according to the function of the product or project ③ Decomposition according to the implementation process ④ Decomposition according to the geographical distribution of the project ⑤ Decomposition according to each goal of the project ⑥ Decomposition by department ⑦ Decomposition by function 04 WBS preparation
steps
Take the WBS decomposition steps of an IT project as an example:
05 WBS inspection standard
After finishing the plan, don't forget the most important step: inspection.
How do you know if your WBS is up to par? There are mainly these standards:
A person's core competitiveness depends on his underlying framework and transferability.
Learn a tool or method, and you will find that what we have mastered is the underlying logic, and we can link more fields and industries from one point.
Take WBS as an example, it is also applicable to product management, and can decompose product research, requirements, design and other work in the same way.
Friends who are familiar with me should know that I often emphasize the phrase "everything can be a project", and project thinking can be used to solve anything.
It is as small as frying eggs and fried rice at home, as large as being in charge of a project worth hundreds of billions, mastering the underlying knowledge system of project management, and this kind of project management ability can be upgraded and applied to any field.
————
I am Lao Yuan, welcome to follow my official account [ Project Manager Lao Yuan], every day there will be dry goods sharing of project management cases .