Let's talk about WBS! A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a way to break a project into smaller, manageable pieces of work. It helps you organize the project by showing: ~the major parts of the project ~the smaller tasks inside each part ~what work has to be completed to finish the project Think of it like taking one big project and turning it into a step-by-step hierarchy. Simple way to think about it: If the project is “Set up a fundraising event”, the WBS answers: ~What big sections of work need to happen? ~What smaller tasks belong under each section? ~How can we organize the project so nothing gets missed? Key idea of a WBS A WBS is usually organized from top to bottom: Level 1: The entire project Level 2: The main deliverables or major work areas Level 3: The smaller tasks/subtasks under each work area Sometimes it goes even deeper if needed. Deliverable vs Task vs Schedule - Deliverable = thing/result - e.g., “Final survey questionnaire”, “Clean response dataset”, “Member feedback summary report” - Task = action - e.g., “Draft survey questions”, “Send survey emails” - Schedule item = action + time - e.g., “Send survey emails on March 3” WBS focuses on deliverables + the work that creates them, not on dates or who does it. Good WBS elements (what “good” looks like) - Deliverable-based: named as a thing, not a verb string - Better: “Survey instrument finalized” - Weaker: “Work on survey questions” - Clear and specific: someone can tell what is “done” - Estimable and assignable: small enough that you could (in theory) estimate it and give it to a person Analogous estimation = using a past, similar task (analogy) to guess how long a new task will take. One catch: with analogous estimation, we usually stay close to the past number unless we have strong data. So instead of cutting it in half right away, we might say: - Last time: 4 hours - This time: maybe 3–4 hours, unless we have proof it’ll be much faster