Microsoft Project - The How To Series that Project Manager too embarrassed to ask. (part 2) - Where is the WBS in Microsoft Project?
In the PMBOK project management process groups and knowledge areas. For what ever projects that you are about to embark on planning process group, you will need to create the WBS under project scope management. However, when you think you are already using the industry most commonly used project management software - Ms Project. You simply can't find a way to start working on it using the software. You are like, WTF....
In fact, if you do a bit of Google here and there, you will end up getting search result suggesting you to buy another software that sits on top of Ms Project. The software is not bad but shouldn't WBS a fundamental of project planning? How could Microsoft miss out on this.
I am not going to elaborate about the purpose of WBS, what are the details of it and how is it going to be applied. For that, you can refer to PMBOK or any project management web sites for details.
What I am going to discuss about is the way to do WBS using Ms Project. And the items that I plan to add into the mpp which is below
- WBS Level
- WBS Code Numbers
- WBS Dictionary
- Work Package
Ms Project actually has WBS functions in it, but it is in a very obscured places. In fact, the method that I going to show you do look like a hack in my view.
Ok, let's get it started.
To enable this, you would need to add in the column to your Ms Projet mpp file.
Column to add is
- WBS
- WBS predecessor
- WBS successor
- Note
Once you have done adding the column, I would suggest to reorganize your columns so then WBS starts first, then Note, WBS predecessor and WBS successor. Anyway, it is your preference how you would like to sort it, I am suggesting this because it is easier to read the plan.
Then, once you have done all these, you should have the basic means to do WBS Level, WBS Code Numbers, WBS Dictionary and Work Package.
So, how to do WBS Level?
The way to do is to use WBS column and the use of indent/outdent task to arrange your WBS level, so, the highest level of WBS would be the one in the outdent task. Work packages would be in your most inner indent task. However, your WBS Code Number is important to match with your WBS level, so, your WBS column which should be used to store WBS Code Number has to match your level that you have indent to be consistent.
Ms Project will recognize your WBS Code Number and auto increment for you.
Say if you have sub task underneath like you click Task - Indent to right. Say your original task WBS 1.1, then the sub task added would be 1.1.1. And say if you WBS is 1.1.1, when you add a new task underneath, the new task WBS Code Number would be 1.1.2.
Now, you have WBS Level and WBS Code Number, what about dictionary. I would suggest to use the Note in the task for your write up. It can be short or long, it is up to you but having the column Note available so then you do not need to click one by one of the task to see the details.
The WBS predessor and WBS successor are useful for you to do the project time management activities later which is sequence activities. However, it is entirely up to you if you want to put it in.
I find looking at the Gantt chart is much more straightforward than doing this way.
So, that is all you need to do to have a WBS features in your Ms Project. Happy project management. Cheers.
Additional topic (Features added into Ms Project Online Desktop Client version 2019 Sept onwards in Office 365)
There is a feature to better organize your WBS in project menu.
Once you click on it, you can customize the format of your WBS in "Define Code"
Like you would like to your WBS to be in character instead of numbers, you can change to UPPERCASE letter. You can also define your separator like instead of 1.1.1.1. You can specify it to be 1-1-1.
Other than that, if your company has requirement on prefix, you can specify like WBS in your prefix and your WBS would appear as "WBS1.1.1". Other thing like you can set a fixed length of WBS code like "0001". Best of all, the format of WBS code can be customed by each level. Like you can specify your WBS code to be "0001.A.001" The customization works in every level. Refer to the attached image, you can see it allow customization of sequencing and format behavior by each level.
In fact, if you do a bit of Google here and there, you will end up getting search result suggesting you to buy another software that sits on top of Ms Project. The software is not bad but shouldn't WBS a fundamental of project planning? How could Microsoft miss out on this.
I am not going to elaborate about the purpose of WBS, what are the details of it and how is it going to be applied. For that, you can refer to PMBOK or any project management web sites for details.
What I am going to discuss about is the way to do WBS using Ms Project. And the items that I plan to add into the mpp which is below
- WBS Level
- WBS Code Numbers
- WBS Dictionary
- Work Package
Ms Project actually has WBS functions in it, but it is in a very obscured places. In fact, the method that I going to show you do look like a hack in my view.
Ok, let's get it started.
To enable this, you would need to add in the column to your Ms Projet mpp file.
Column to add is
- WBS
- WBS predecessor
- WBS successor
- Note
Once you have done adding the column, I would suggest to reorganize your columns so then WBS starts first, then Note, WBS predecessor and WBS successor. Anyway, it is your preference how you would like to sort it, I am suggesting this because it is easier to read the plan.
Then, once you have done all these, you should have the basic means to do WBS Level, WBS Code Numbers, WBS Dictionary and Work Package.
So, how to do WBS Level?
The way to do is to use WBS column and the use of indent/outdent task to arrange your WBS level, so, the highest level of WBS would be the one in the outdent task. Work packages would be in your most inner indent task. However, your WBS Code Number is important to match with your WBS level, so, your WBS column which should be used to store WBS Code Number has to match your level that you have indent to be consistent.
Ms Project will recognize your WBS Code Number and auto increment for you.
Say if you have sub task underneath like you click Task - Indent to right. Say your original task WBS 1.1, then the sub task added would be 1.1.1. And say if you WBS is 1.1.1, when you add a new task underneath, the new task WBS Code Number would be 1.1.2.
Now, you have WBS Level and WBS Code Number, what about dictionary. I would suggest to use the Note in the task for your write up. It can be short or long, it is up to you but having the column Note available so then you do not need to click one by one of the task to see the details.
The WBS predessor and WBS successor are useful for you to do the project time management activities later which is sequence activities. However, it is entirely up to you if you want to put it in.
I find looking at the Gantt chart is much more straightforward than doing this way.
So, that is all you need to do to have a WBS features in your Ms Project. Happy project management. Cheers.
Additional topic (Features added into Ms Project Online Desktop Client version 2019 Sept onwards in Office 365)
There is a feature to better organize your WBS in project menu.
Once you click on it, you can customize the format of your WBS in "Define Code"
Like you would like to your WBS to be in character instead of numbers, you can change to UPPERCASE letter. You can also define your separator like instead of 1.1.1.1. You can specify it to be 1-1-1.
Other than that, if your company has requirement on prefix, you can specify like WBS in your prefix and your WBS would appear as "WBS1.1.1". Other thing like you can set a fixed length of WBS code like "0001". Best of all, the format of WBS code can be customed by each level. Like you can specify your WBS code to be "0001.A.001" The customization works in every level. Refer to the attached image, you can see it allow customization of sequencing and format behavior by each level.
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