As Dr. Simon discussed in the lecture of how the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can be broken down. There is isn’t one way of doing this. WBS do not have to a certain way. It can be broken down by components of a product or broken down into phases. Some of the examples he discussed were:

Option 1: Project is broken down by Design Product, Develop Product, Test Product, Install Product.
Option 2: Engineering, Research, Clinical, Regulatory, Marketing.

Keep in mind that even though there is no one way of doing this but your WBS has to make sense for the project you are doing.

My questions to everyone working in industry is: was there a time where a project you were working on or a team you were a part of could have done a better job with the WBS or did your project manager use another method to complete a project. If so, please give an example.

And if you are someone like me who has no industry experience. Was there ever a project (medical or non-medical) where your work break down was the reason that the entire project was delayed or not successfully completed.

Sharing my own experience, this semester I experienced working with the best team on project 1 while on the other hand, worked with a team where delayed communication caused last minute submission of report and project. The team where all of the work was completed before the due date was mainly due to communication and assigning each person with a task from day 1. Alternatively, my experience working in the other team, it took more than a day to get a response on a single question or assigning tasks. The team itself had no issues but our work breakdown and assigning task on day 1 resulted in submitting a project we knew could of been better time was managed properly and work was divided evenly.