ITPEC IP April 2019 Question 55

Which of the following is an appropriate description of WBS creation in project management?

a)Lowest level works are defined by decomposing a work into the one that can certainly be completed in one (1) day by one (1) person.b)Higher level works are defined by accumulating smaller units of work one by one.c)Works needed to create deliverables are decomposed and defined.d)All works are defined at the same depth of hierarchy in one (1) project.

Explanation

The work needed to create the deliverables is decomposed and defined — a WBS breaks the project's deliverables and work down, top-down, into manageable pieces.

A WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) starts from the whole project and its deliverables and divides them level by level until the lowest items, the work packages, are small enough to estimate in cost and duration, assign to someone and track. The WBS then becomes the basis of the schedule, the cost estimate and the resource plan.

Answer (c)

Why not others:

•(a) — there is no fixed size such as one person-day; work is decomposed only as far as it can be estimated and managed
•(b) — a WBS is built top-down by decomposing the whole, not bottom-up by accumulating small units of work
•(d) — branches may be decomposed to different depths; a simple deliverable needs fewer levels than a complex one

Key rule: A WBS is a top-down, deliverable-based decomposition whose depth varies by branch; its lowest level is the work package.

Project Management · AI-written, may contain errors

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