What is a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)?

Last week I was presenting at the Potomac Forum “EVM training for Federal Agency Executives and Managers” with Kevin Martin the president of KM Systems.  Kevin introduced the subject of WBS to the audience.  He presented that a WBS could be done several ways.

He said a WBS could be Functional, Product/Deliverables, Life Cycle/Process or Mixed.  I was taken aback as this is contrary to the WBS as defined and used in EVM.  But I started to think about it and it started to make sense in some situations.

Before I go any farther, the EVM standards all say a WBS is product/deliverable based.  This is because it supports the responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) and summarization for standard reporting.  It also makes sense if you are trying to build a cost estimating capability for products by collecting all past project costs by product. But are we limited to one WBS?

I work for Deltek software and from a technology point of view, the answer is no.  In our products you can sort data across several structures (organizational, integrated product teams, CLIN #, etc.).  So it actually started to make sense that you could use different WBS structures on a single project.  This is starting to happen in the civilian federal agencies that have traditionally used life cycle WBS that matched the way they received funding.

This is worth some additional comments.  Have any of you seen the use of multiple WBS on a single project?

What is a WBS and how is it used?

I just received a message from a friend (whose name is also Mark) and former co-worker.  He was asking for some information about EVM and in particular what the relationship was between a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) element and a task.  In his current company he has a product that has scheduling as part of the process and he has customers that want to use EVM.  How does he make that connection?  And why would that be needed?

I tried to explain and finally realized that a WBS is a very important tool, for a number of reasons. 

The WBS is the decomposition of a project scope into small enough parts to give to a single organization to manage. In the US defense department there is a MIL Handbook 881 (Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items).  Mark had found and read that handbook but he still did not get the why or how to connect it to a schedule.  (A side note, there is a group currently updating that handbook and it will be released as a Mil Standard, probably this year, 2010).

I think I made more sense to Mark when I said it is the summarization structure for the project.  Every element can sum to one and only one parent element.  I went on to say that every element at the lowest level should have a statement of work.  The parent element should have a summary statement of work comprised of all the child elements at every level.  Although it is usually started at the top and broken down until enough detail is available to manage the work.

The WBS is then the common structure on which the budget is summarized to establish the total project plan.  It is the common structure that is agreed to with the customer at some high level.  Since the work scope and budgets exist within the WBS structure, it is only natural that the work status and cost also be collected at the same lowest level and summarized up the structure.  Then at the level upon which the contractor and the customer agree, there can also be reporting that is provides the clear picture of project performance to plan.

What about the relationship between a WBS element and a task on a schedule? This is viewed differently by schedulers and project planners/analysts.  Schedulers insist that the sequence of tasks is paramount and that a common task may cross multiple WBS elements.  The planner/analyst has to have every task associated with a single WBS element so that they will summarize correctly for analysis and reporting to the customer.

So what is the answer?  I hope to provide some insights in my next post.

I will be one of the instructors at the (EVM) Workshop for Government Executives, Managers and Staff

On January 27-28, 2010 at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, DC the Potomac Forum will be presenting a training course aimed a Civilian agencies and their contractors to learn what EVM is and what they should be doing to implement it.

Not only is this a training class but there are presentations about what and how by;

Keynote Presentations:
Carol Cha
Assistant Director for Information Technology
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Dr. Robert Rovinsky
Director of IT Enterprise Services
Office of the Chief Information Officer
Federal Aviation Administration

The actual instructors for the class will me Joe Houser of KM Systems and myself.  There will also be comments by Dave Scott of Deltek and Kevin Martin of KM Systems.

If you are interested, here is the link;

http://www.potomacforum.org/?view=338

I have taught a few of these classes over and there is usually 30+ folks representing several agencies and a few contractors.  It is always a mixture of backgrounds and EVM understanding that leads to some very interesting conversations and information exchange.

Welcome to a new Decade and more opportunity to use EVM

I am trying to finish a paper on why state governments should use EVM.  Think about that for a minute.

If EVM is good for managing large projects, who else has large projects besides the federal government?  The state governments have a lot of large and small projects of all types.  They probably don’t have any defense programs, but they have most every other kind of projects.

So why shouldn’t a state use EVM.  The biggest issue with EVM, as most of us know it, is verifying compliance with the ANSI 748 standard.  If states ask contractors to comply with the standard, who will verify that they are compliant?  Will the states need to have an EVM compliance agency like the DCMA, that does EVM validations DOD projects?  Also, if my EVM system is accepted in one state, is it acceptable to another state?

I don’t think contractors need to be validated, but consider this.  In every major construction project the owner puts in the contract how scheduling should be done.  This often includes the qualifications for the schedulers, definitions, reports and how to handle changes to the schedule.

Then it should be easy to add the definition of how to do EVM into the contract.  Actually, it is probably a lot less detailed than the scheduling specifications I have seen.

What do you think?  Would that work?  Have you seen anything like that done in the past?

Let me know what you think.

I hope you have a Happy holiday

This is the time of year that most of us spend time with our families and friends and forget a bout work for awhile.  I highly recommend that and hope you have a great time.

Cheers to all

Defense CEOs see mounting pressure to perform

Reuters has a article dated December 15, 2009 saying that U.S. defense industry executives are forecasting flat or declining defense budgets.  They claim this is putting them under increasing pressure to deliver more flexible weapons faster and cheaper.

This is a short article with some interesting quotes.  Here is one I particularly like: “We need to both accept that everybody in government isn’t an idiot and everybody in industry isn’t a criminal,”

Here is another; “Those programs that are not performing very well … will be targets of reductions. I don’t think there’s going to be any changes in doctrine or major weapons systems,”

Reading this story is on that should make you feel good that you are an EVM practitioner.  EVM is what will likely help those contractors perform well.  Here is the link;

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BE4SW20091215

Why would you go to a user group meeting?

In May, Deltek will hold its annual user group meeting in Washington, DC.  I am one of those helping to make the Enterprise Project Management (EVM, scheduling, risk, etc.) portion of the conference successful. 

What makes a project management professional want to come to a 3 day meeting based around products they already own?  There is always the food and party aspect, I understand.  If I only have budget for one trip per quarter, why would I want to come to the user group rather than some other conference?

These are the types of questions that we ponder in trying to plan the meetings.  I was talking to a consultant who has a lot of knowledge in the area of EV and asked if he would like to speak.  He showed and interest but has not committed. 

Do you have a subject of interest to a large group of project management professionals?  If you would like to speak at the Deltek Insight 2010 User Group meeting let me know.  If you want more information, here is  the web page link http://www.deltekinsight.com/ .

I have been asking customers if they would like to share stories, successes and failures. I have been speaking to program managers of successful projects to see if they would tell us what they did right and what they would do different if they could do it over.  These are the kinds of things that I would be interested in.

We know from surveys that the most popular sessions are those that provide advanced product training. Of course we will be offering a large number of those.  We will also be talking about product roadmaps that show where we are headed with our products.

What else would prompt a user to attend the user conference?  What can we offer that is so compelling that you would leave your office for a couple of days with 4000 of your closest friends?  What has made a user group meeting that you have attended in the past memorable?

I have a positive schedule variance on a project for replacing a knee

After years of abuse, my knee finally gave out.  For months I looked for a way around getting it replaced.  I got injections and limped along with a cane.  With all the travelling I do this was too much.  So I scheduled it for the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Like most of us that do scheduling, we have to consider all the outside influences (how long could I go without traveling for work).  When could my wife stay home (she travels in her job as well)  to help me. With all of this, the holidays seemed the best time.  Oh yea, there was the doctors availability to consider.

How do you take earned value on a metal knee?  It was obviously a milestone but it is also one of the shortest tasks in the project.  The longest being recovery with the physical therapy visits I had planned on 4 to 6 weeks of those.

So all the tasks prior to surgery were handled and I arrived at the hospital at 5am to check in for a 7:30 am surgery.  It lasted less than 2 hours and I awoke a couple of hours after surgery with tubes of all kinds attached to me.  They made sure I was waking up and felt no pain and then told me it was time to stand up.  Stand Up!  Are you out of your mind!  OK, this was not in my schedule of tasks to accomplish right after surgery.  This is a change to the project plan.  I want to renegotiate this task!

The nurses were wonderful and they got me to my feet next to the bed (tubes dangling everywhere, bare butt in the breeze) and had me shuffle a couple steps forward, backward and sideways.  My recovery plan had started only no-one told me it would be like this.

Then they strapped my leg in a CPM (constant passive motion) machine that slowly bent and straightened my leg over and over.  It sounds maniacal but it was actually pretty good to keep my knee moving. Then the worst part of the recovery phase started.  This attractive you lady with a very pleasant smile and disposition introduced herself as the Physical Therapist.  She turned out to be a physical terrorist.  She put me through the most excruciating pain and did it with the nicest smile.  I must say that it did work. I was released from the hospital on Wednesday at 1 pm.  I was in the hospital for 2 ½ days and went home a day early. That was another positive schedule variance.  I was walking with a walker to support me.

I was told that I would need to have home therapy 3 times a week for 3 weeks.  By then I should be able to go to an outpatient therapy location.  There I would need another week or two of therapy.  That was what I had on my schedule.  What happened was that I used the walker until Friday and was on a cane after that.  When the therapist showed up, I answered the door standing with no aids.  He questioned if I was the patient.  I had 3 home therapy visits. 

My follow up visit to the doctor confirmed that I was in good enough condition that I did not require any more PT.  I simply need to continue my exercises.  So here I am 2 weeks after surgery and I walk up and down stairs with no aids.  I cannot walk too far as I am building up my endurance.

So how are my EV metrics on this project?  Outstanding!  I am ahead of schedule, under costs and projecting a very successful project.  I have considered one more change to the project, I want to go skiing again.

Who are the most influential people in EVM?

November 2nd through 4th of 2009 was the Integrated Program Management (IPM) conference (co-sponsored by the NDIA, PMI-CPM and SCEA).  

There were two awards given that recognized people you should know about.  The awards are named for other people you should know about.

Let me start with the first Annual Gary Christle award that recognizes a leader in his or her community who

• promoted an environment of continuous cooperation
• made significant contributions to the development and/or understanding of earned value management
• moved forward with solutions that effect change and management acceptance of earned value management
• promoted of the use of earned value management as a management tool
• fostered positive working relationships
• and was effective in making a meaningful change

First let me tell you about Gary.  Some history is included below but it does not tell you about the man.  A gentle but persuasive man whose history goes back to the roots of EVM. Then about 3 years ago he became terminally ill.  To the testament of his will, he has outlived all of the doctors projections and stood on stage to present the first annual award that carries his name.  For those in the audience that know his story, it was extremely gratifying (I wasn’t crying that was dust in my eye).

The other half of that presentation was the person who received the award, Dr. Robert (Bob) Rovinsky of the FAA.  If you read my earlier posts, you saw that Bob and I presented together at a seminar Deltek presented.  I was moved as he came by to see me later and proudly and humbly pulled out the Gary Christle award to show me.  Bob is cut from the same cloth as Gary and I could not think of a more fitting pair of men to be on stage associated with excellence in EVM.  If you do not know who these men are, please read the short descriptions that follow.

I first met Gary in 1983 when he worked at the pentagon. Mr. Christle was the Deputy Director for Acquisition Management, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics). He was responsible for Department of Defense (DoD) Acquisition policy as embodied in the DoD 5000 series documents.  If you don’t know, that is EVM.

Mr. Gaylord E. (Gary) Christle was instrumental in the founding of the Performance Management Association (PMA) and encouraging it to expand its focus to make “earned value” management principles a cornerstone of project management. In this regard, he was the instigator of PMA’s eventual affiliation with the Project Management Institute as the PMI College of Performance Management.

Dr. Robert B. Rovinsky, Director of Information Technology Enterprise Services at the Federal Aviation Administration, over the past five years led his agency to the forefront of government agencies, with ultimate evidence provided by the Government Accountability Office’s decision in 2009 to remove the FAA’s Air Traffic Control modernization program from its “High Risk List,”. Dr. Rovinsky assumed a lead role by supporting formation of an EVM “Community of Interest” and hosting meetings at the FAA attracting participants from multiple federal agencies.

The really amazing thing about Bob is his willingness to share his experience and knowledge with everyone.  He has graciously agreed to speak at many functions and is a riveting speaker.

The Federal IT Dashboard is taking more time than it should

If you haven’t seent the US Federal IT Dashbaord, check it out, http://it.usaspending.gov/   This was just started in June 2009, so it is new and not fully developed.

What this does is show you how the 25 largest US fedral agencies are doing on managing their IT projects.  This is US tax dollars at work.  The problem is the amount of time it takes to input the monthly update.  There is no automated system to do this.  That means that it is done manually.  I have heard agencies take from 30 minutes to 2 weeks to update this data.  As a consequence of it taking so much time, the data is not always updated completely.

Deltek has been working on a modification to the COTS analysis tool called wInsight to automate the update process.  That modification to wInsight is being tested currently and should be available shortly to any agency (wInsight is on the GSA schedule).  The funny part is that most agencies already own wInsight.  So as soon as the modification is available, they can get it as part of their maintenance agreement.

If you look at the IT Dashboard site, it says that it will be using EV data shortly.  It is using ‘best guess’ data today.  One reason why the data is in question.  Since wIsight can read data from any commercial EVM system, MS Project or an Excel spreasheet, it becomes the obvious choice to use  for collecting the data and automatically updating the IT Dashboard.

I think this dashboard is terrific.  I think we should see more of this kind of information on the web.  I hope that we see this concept expanded to include all major projects.  What do you think?