NURS 6441: Project Management: Healthcare Information Technology | Week 6

An unsuccessful project fails in the beginning—not at the end.

—Brian Gugerty, DNS‚ RN

All successful projects employ a set of steps or guidelines that direct the project and the work of the team. The project manager generally establishes those steps and uses them to identify the project scope, establish priorities, create a work breakdown, and integrate the breakdown within the organization. These steps help the project to be self-sustaining, and are vital to successfully managing a project.

The work breakdown structure (WBS) is a critical part of project management. The WBS helps define the scope of the project and guides the efforts of those involved.

This week you examine the process of defining steps used to manage a project. You also investigate how to identify the scope of a project, manage and establish priorities, and develop a WBS.

Learning Objectives – NURS 6441: Week 6: Steps in Project Planning, Part I

Students will:

• Analyze work breakdown structure formats
• Evaluate work breakdown structures for task clarity
• Produce a work breakdown structure for a health information technology project*

*The Assignment related to this Learning Objective is introduced this week and submitted in Week 7.

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Biafore, B. (2010). Microsoft Project 2010: The missing manual. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.

• Chapter 4, “Breaking Work Into Task-Sized Chunks” (pp. 77–100)This chapter explains how to create a work breakdown structure and how to import a work breakdown structure into Microsoft Project.

Coplan, S., & Masuda, D. (2011). Project management for healthcare information technology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

• Chapter 3, “Project Management”
  • • “Prepare Work Breakdown Structure and WBS Dictionary” (pp. 53–56)

  This section of Chapter 3 reviews the core processes of preparing a work breakdown structure (WBS). The chapter provides an example of a WBS and details its essential components.

Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK® guide) (6th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Author.

• Chapter 5, “Project Scope Management”
  • • 5.4, “Create WBS”

  This section of Chapter 5 reviews the process of creating a work breakdown structure. Specifically, the chapter examines how to determine inputs, WBS tools and techniques, and outputs.

Kendrick, T. (2009). Identifying & managing project risk: Essential tools for failure-proofing your project(2nd ed., Ebrary version). New York, NY: AMACOM.

• Chapter 3, “Identifying Project Scope Risk” (pp. 40–69)This chapter examines methods of identifying scope risks and the types of scope risks pertaining to project deliverables. The chapter highlights a variety of sources of scope risk as well.

Shirey, M. R. (2008). Project management tools for leaders and entrepreneurs. Clinical Nurse Specialist, 22(3), 129–131.

The author of this article introduces project management tools that clinical nurse specialists may use to coordinate team work. The article highlights the usage of one such tool, the Gantt chart.

Thomas, M., Jacques, P. H., Adams, J. R., & Kihneman-Wooten, J. (2008). Developing an effective project: Planning and team building combined. Project Management Journal, 39(4), 105–113.

This article analyzes project planning and control and the process of developing a project plan. The article also reports the results of research that sought to determine 137 organizations’ approaches to establishing projects.

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2009, March 2). Work breakdown structure. GAO Reports, 65–78.

This article examines the importance of a work breakdown structure (WBS) in project management. The chapter demonstrates how a WBS assists in resource identification, cost estimation, and risk determination.

Wu, Z., Schmidt, L. P., & Wigstrom, M. S. (2010). Product development workflow management based on work breakdown structure. IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings, 1–5.

The authors of this article highlight the usage of WBS in managing complex product development projects. The authors examine how a WBS helps represent and manage the intricacies of tasks and activity relationships.

Mathis, M. (n.d.). Work breakdown structure: Purpose, process and pitfalls. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/work-breakdown-structure-purpose-process-pitfalls.html

This article provides a general review of the WBS. The author focuses on the purpose, process, and pitfalls of a WBS.

Document: Team Project Scenario (PDF)

This document contains the scenario your team will use for Team Project.

Document: Work Breakdown Structure Formats (PDF)

This document presents a scenario and three corresponding work breakdown structures that you will use for your Discussion this week.

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013c). Planning, part I: Defining project scope and activities [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 6 minutes.

In this presentation, the participants discuss defining project scope and project activities, using the work breakdown structure, and managing project risk through SWOT analysis.

Discussion: Work Breakdown Structure

Within reason, is there such a thing as a project that is too complex to complete? Consider the Space Shuttle. One of the most complex machines ever built, the Space Shuttle had over 2.5 million parts, each of which had to be accounted for by someone. How did anyone manage to track and properly assemble these parts? The answer is through the application of a work breakdown structure (WBS). A WBS is a fundamental tool that project managers use to organize and divide the work of a project. A WBS focuses on breaking down a project’s scope into individual deliverables that may be created by assigned team members.

There are multiple work breakdown structure formats and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Project managers select a type of WBS based upon the specifics of the project they are managing. Each WBS format emphasizes different aspects of a project. These varied perspectives may each be appropriate, depending upon what information a project manager needs.

In this Discussion, you analyze different WBS formats and evaluate whether they meet basic criteria for clarity.

To prepare:

• Explore the Work Breakdown Structure Formats document included in this week’s Learning Resources. The document presents a scenario and three corresponding WBS formats that pertain to the scenario.
• Consider the advantages and disadvantages of each WBS format included in the document.
• Think about the level of detail dedicated to task information in each WBS format. Evaluate the formats based on the following criteria for clarity:
  • The task has a measurable status or completion.
  • The task has defined start and end events.
  • The task has a deliverable.
  • The task’s time and cost are easily estimated.
  • The task can be completed without interruption and additional input after its start.

Post an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each work breakdown structure format. Provide an analysis of whether (and how) the work breakdown structures meet the assigned criteria for clarity. Provide rationale for your response.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days, using one or more of the following approaches:

• Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research.
• Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
• Offer and support an alternative perspective, using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library. NURS 6441: Week 6: Steps in Project Planning, Part I.

ADDITIONAL INFO 

Work breakdown structure formats

Introduction

If you’re looking to create a work breakdown structure, you’ll need to know which format is best for your situation. Work breakdown structures can be created using software or using just pen and paper. In WBS formats that use mindmaps, tasks are interconnected and arranged in a tree structure. Some WBS formats are visual and others are text-based. Gantt charts can be used to create work breakdown structures as well as traditional ones that use boxes.

Work breakdown structures can be created using software or using just pen and paper.

Work breakdown structures can be created using software or using just pen and paper. Software is more accurate, but it’s also more difficult to use and less flexible. Pen and paper offers a lot of flexibility in terms of how you want to break down your projects, as well as what information you need to record during the process. It’s best suited for brainstorming ideas and sharing them with others later on down the road when they’re ready for implementation into actual work packages within their respective departments, teams or organizations (e.g., “Don’t forget our new marketing campaign launch next week”).

In WBS formats that use mindmaps, tasks are interconnected and arranged in a tree structure.

Mindmaps are a great way to visualize the interrelationships between tasks. In WBS formats that use mindmaps, tasks are interconnected and arranged in a tree structure.

Mindmaps can be used to create a WBS because they show how all the tasks fit together. For example, if you wanted to create an assembly line for your company’s products, you could use mind maps as part of your project management process by showing how all of these steps would work together on paper or using software like Visio or OmniGraffle.

Some WBS formats are visual and others are text-based.

Some WBS formats are visual and others are text-based. Visual formats are easier for project teams to understand, but they can take longer to create. Text-based WBSs are more flexible and can be used for large projects as well as small ones, making them the best choice when you’re working with a team that doesn’t want to spend its time on something less important than their actual work.

There’s no right or wrong way when it comes down to choosing between these two types of WBSs—the best format depends on your own needs!

Gantt charts can be used to create work breakdown structures.

A Gantt chart is a type of schedule that shows the start and end dates for tasks, as well as their duration. You can use it to create work breakdown structures and visualize project timelines.

So what’s the big deal? Well, firstly, it makes it easier to visually see how long something will take before you even begin working on it (because you know exactly when your next task is coming up). Secondly, if you want to show multiple tasks in succession (for example: “design new feature” + “build prototype”), then this will help keep them all straight within your head so that they don’t get confused with each other – which can happen sometimes when we’re talking about complex software systems!

A traditional work breakdown structure uses boxes to represent tasks.

A traditional work breakdown structure uses boxes to represent tasks. You can use nested boxes to group related tasks, or you can use a hierarchy of parent-child relationships between them.

The WBS is often colour-coded based on status, priority and even dependencies between different parts of the project that must be completed at various times in order for it to be successful. The arrows drawn across these blocks indicate how closely related they are and what would happen if one were delayed or not completed properly until another part has been executed first by someone else on your team (or possibly by someone outside).

There is no one right way to create a work breakdown structure

There is no one right way to create a WBS.

Some people prefer to use text-based tools, like Microsoft Project or Excel, while others prefer visual tools like Visio or OmniGraffle. Some people prefer using one tool over another because it makes their work easier; they simply want something that’s easy to read and understand. Others may not feel comfortable with the idea of sharing such information publicly in any format at all!

Those who choose the latter option can still utilize some of these formats by inserting them into an existing document so you can still see what everything looks like together on paper (or screen).

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has given you some insight into how to use work breakdown structure formats. As you can see, there isn’t one right way to create these documents and that’s why we’ve included several different types in our list! We hope these resources will help everyone from the beginner to experienced project manager who wants a little more control over their projects.