My only experience with a work breakdown structure was during my senior capstone project as an undergraduate. My group could have certainly developed a more detailed work breakdown structure which would have avoided delays and dead ends. For example, our project was an electromechanical system that was broken down into three categories: electrical, hardware, and software. The work breakdown structure proved to be successful for the development of the electrical and hardware sections of the project, however my group ran into many issues within the software category. After looking back at the project, I understand that the software section of the work breakdown structure contained much less detail than the other two categories. This was because we did not know much about this category at that point in the project, and we had to consult various experts to develop this portion of the project. For future reference, I would consult an expert prior to developing sections of a work breakdown structure that I know little about.

I do not have industry experience, however, during my senior capstone design project, we created a work breakdown schedule for our project. During the duration of the project, the pandemic caused many unexpected delays, however the work breakdown schedule allowed us to stay on track with our project. By having all the tasks detailed with who was responsible and the expected timeline, we were able to adjust efficiently according to delays. Additionally, we were able to monitor our own project as well as our other team members' progress to ensure we were all on track to complete the project. Although a work breakdown schedule would be much more complex in industry, I found the organization and detail of the work breakdown schedule helpful for planning of our capstone project. 

I have worked on projects before where the work breakdown was not clear. The members of the group were all assigned tasks but there was no clear timeline on when each task should be completed to ensure that the whole project was done by its deadline. Because certain tasks could not be started or completed until other tasks were done, it became an issue when tasks that should have been completed first were not. Moreover, communication between team members was infrequent. While the project was completed in time, the lack of organization and communication definitely caused unnecessary delays in the project. It definitely highlighted the importance of constant communication between project members and making sure that the responsibilities for each member and timeline of each task in the work breakdown was clear.

The creation of a work breakdown structure (WBS) is a crucial step to list out and determine the tasks required to complete specific categories related to a project. Therefore, in contrast to prior posts, the WBS does not contain relationships between tasks or duration times. Instead, the WBS is referenced to then develop a network diagram that showcases both relationships and duration times between the tasks listed. Furthermore, it is important to mention that the WBS is not created to assign tasks or evenly distribute tasks between team members as mentioned in prior posts. Nonetheless, from personal experience working on projects, I believe the brainstorming of tasks and development of a WBS is a beneficial step to break down the project into smaller more achievable tasks. For example, the thought of completing my capstone project during my senior year seemed more realistic to accomplish after my team and I listed all the tasks it would entail for our work breakdown structure. 

I agree with @sameer-rana in what a WBS is and the features that make it up. The WBS is simply to list all potential tasks that may be required to complete a project. Depending on the type of WBS that is made, these tasks can be broken up based on department or in what phase of the project the task would occur. The WBS should not assign task dependencies, time durations for each task, or even the delegated team member to complete the task. A WBS acts as a rough overall listing of all tasks that need to be completed for a project. Once a WBS has been created, a schedule (Gantt Chart) and a project network diagram can be created to assign time durations, dependencies, and other additional details. I personally have used a WBS for my senior capstone project and it was a very useful way in starting to plan the entire project. It allowed my team to reconsider certain aspects of our project before even beginning and think more critically regarding what exactly would need to be completed. A WBS can help to plan a project’s tasks and is highly useful during the early stages of any project.

Thanks for this question. I have a few issues completing some of the projects due to the inefficiency of communication, unavailability of proper resources and limited technology and systems knowledge. One time I was given a project to collect some older data and perform hectic calculations for hundreds of patient lots. it was very tedious and time consuming as the data were not sorted properly. Therefore, I had to sort them first and then calculate them. However, I wish the project management team had found out a proper software to sort them and do the calculations. Project managers were always busy and unresponsive most of the times. Therefore, there seemed to be a huge gap of communication and interpersonal skills between the associates and project managers.