Project Plan Phase II: Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt Chart Paper

Project Plan Phase II: Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt Chart Paper

Project Plan Phase II: Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt Chart Paper

The implementation of new projects in healthcare like the use of communication apps to improve patient care interactions with patients and providers, requires leaders to use appropriate planning tools to attain set goals and objectives. Two critical tools in project planning include the work breakdown structure (WBS) and the Gantt Chart that allows project managers and teams to stay within the scope and timelines of a project while ensuring that all stakeholders are accountable to their roles and responsibilities (Baker, 2018). The purpose of this paper is to outline tools that will be used in project implementation to guide the project manager and team to attain set goals within established timelines. These tools include the work breakdown structure and the Gantt Chart.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The work breakdown structure is a tool used in project management when all deliverables have been established and tasks allocated to individuals to accomplish. The grouping of tasks and breaking down of areas and responsibilities of a project leads to clarity in goal definition and attainment. The WBS provides a host of opportunities for a project’s success like attaining agreement with the scheduled work and communication with stakeholders as well as offering awareness. As such, it is important to involve all team members in structuring the breakdown of all work in a project. The WBS ensures effective communication of responsibilities for all team members and specific requirements needed for the project to succeed and provide expected deliverables (Derenskaya, 2018). The WBS tool clearly identifies and defines the respective roles and responsibilities of the different team members to prevent any confusion and shared approaches which make it difficult to attain accountability.

The developed WBS in this project ensures that no role overlap exist as such will lead to shared responsibility which makes members ineffective and inefficient. Shared responsibility also leads to double staffing and duplication of duties. Such situations lead to resource wastage and may have negative effects on timelines and project goals. In this case, the project uses a work breakdown structure with a Gantt Chart. Knowledge about the team members and their decision-making process are essential to creating a sense of teamwork. Allowing the team members to select area to work where they demonstrate their strengths and skills will improve the success of the project and efficiency in the team (Saputra & Latief, 2020). Imperatively, a project manager should understand that they are part of the team and require all the input from the different team members to attain expected deliverables for the project.

Gantt Chart Tool

Project managers must plan, organize, direct and control resources to effectively deliver project goals and objectives. Therefore, using a Gantt chart, project managers can show a project’s progress and any substantial change. The Gantt chart provides timelines right from the inception of a project to its logical conclusion and deliverables. The development of a Gantt chart requires active participation of team members who can agree on the timelines to complete the undertaking on time to avoid creep and additional resources which may lead to a rise in the overall cost of the project (Robbins, 2019. The Gantt chart provides an explanation of the time required to complete certain tasks and resources available for the task at hand to be accomplished. Effective communication is an essential component in attaining project deliverables and timelines. Therefore, a Gantt chart is an essential tool for team members to show their input and skills to complete tasks and duties assigned to them by the project manager (Saputra & Latief, 2020). Through the use of a Gantt chart, team members can track their overall progress, see the progress of the entire project and allow for changes where necessary to attain set goals and deliverables.

The Gantt chart addresses several aspects of the project that include deliverables, available resources for implementation and the requisite budget. The chart also outlines critical timelines to achieve all the anticipated milestones. The Gantt chart developed in this case is alongside the WBS to demonstrate the effective progress of the project in different aspect at the same time. The Gantt chart is a WBS which does more than static task list or tree diagram. The dynamic Gantt chart in this case allows the project manager to link dependencies, set project milestones and baseline to attain deliverables.

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Conclusion

Effective communication and tracking progress are vital aspects of any successful project. Using tools to assist promote clear and constant communication is important when working with team members who may have different tasks and responsibilities. The use of tools like the WBS and Gantt chart is crucial for effective planning and tracking the progress of a project as well as assigning duties and responsibilities. The implementation of the communication app in the facility is a project that will provide more benefits to the patients and nurses. However, its implementation requires effective planning to track progress and overall attainment of the anticipated deliverables.

References

Baker, B. (2018). Project quality management practice & theory. American Journal of

Management, 18(3), 10-17. doi:https://doi.org/10.33423/ajm.v18i3.69

Derenskaya, Y. (2018). Project scope management process. Baltic Journal of Economic Studies,

4(1), 118-125. doi:https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2018-4-1-118-125

Robbins, T. R. (2019). A multipart project planning and tracking exercise. Decision Sciences

Journal of Innovative Education, 17(2), 104-125. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dsji.12176

Saputra, P. D., & Latief, Y. (2020, April). Analysis of safety cost structure in infrastructure

project of precast of precast concrete bridge based on Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 830, No. 2, p. 022074). IOP Publishing.

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In this assignment, you will define and document the project’s tasks and project’s deliverables and their relationships to each. You will develop the work-breakdown structure (WBS) and project timelines using a Gantt chart.

The WBS identifies the project’s tasks that need to be completed by priority and flows into, then facilitates project scheduling. This breakdown helps the project team identify all tasks needed to get the work done and the resources necessary to complete it. This framework allows you to assign tasks to individual team members, making them accountable for those tasks in the process. It is important that all tasks be identified and broken down, since project delays or even failure frequently result from forgotten or overlooked tasks rather than imprecise guesstimates.

The Gantt chart, named after Henry Gantt, clearly shows the start and completion dates for all major project activities and subtasks. The Gantt chart is straightforward, easy to understand, and simple to change. It provides a snapshot of the project, and one can immediately identify task durations and distinguish tasks dependent upon other tasks to be completed before they are started. Understanding of all dependencies is critical for the project manager who is ultimately responsible for time, budgets and resource allocation.

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Project Plan Phase 2: Week 5

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt Chart

Guidelines and Scoring Rubric

Purpose

The process of project management has five phases, 1) design/initiation which you just completed, 2) finalizing your plan before implementation which you will do now, 3) implementation, 4) monitor and control and finally, 5) evaluation and lessons learned as well as knowledge transfer.

During phase 2 – finalizing the project plan, you will continue to create the tools and documents you will need when you implement your project as the project manager in phase 3.

Week 4: Deliverables and Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

Week 5: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt Chart

Week 6: Risk Management and Human Resource Management Plans

Week 7: Communication Plan

Week 8: Develop a PowerPoint presentation you will present to your team and all stakeholders to get everyone ready for implementation of your project next term.

In this assignment, you will define and document the project’s tasks and project’s deliverables and their relationships to each. You will develop the work-breakdown structure (WBS) and project timelines using a Gantt chart.

The WBS identifies the project’s tasks that need to be completed by priority and flows into, then facilitates project scheduling. This breakdown helps the project team identify all tasks needed to get the work done and the resources necessary to complete it. This framework allows you to assign tasks to individual team members, making them accountable for those tasks in the process. It is important that all tasks be identified and broken down, since project delays or even failure frequently result from forgotten or overlooked tasks rather than imprecise guesstimates.

The Gantt chart, named after Henry Gantt, clearly shows the start and completion dates for all major project activities and subtasks. The Gantt chart is straightforward, easy to understand, and simple to change. It provides a snapshot of the project, and one can immediately identify task durations and distinguish tasks dependent upon other tasks to be completed before they are started. Understanding of all dependencies is critical for the project manager who is ultimately responsible for time, budgets and resource allocation.

To assist you, there is a PowerPoint file demonstrating a WBS, and a WBS Checklist. You can also refer to the Week 4 introduction for a tutorial of how to create a Gantt Chart.

Total Points Possible: 100

Requirements

1. Complete the WBS and Gantt chart documents. Attach documents as appendices to a professionally written paper explaining what you are doing
2. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations are consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition.

Preparing the paper

1. All project tasks must be identified and broken down in your WBS. Attach documents as appendices to a professionally written paper explaining what you are doing
2. The Gantt chart must provide timelines for all major project tasks and subtasks following the Excel sample. Attach documents as appendices to a professionally written paper explaining what you are doing
3. Ideas and information from professional sources must be cited correctly using the current Edition of the APA manual.
4. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations are consistent with formal academic writing.

Category	Points	%	Description
All of the tasks are broken down into their lowest levels and follow the sample format for the WBS. Documents are attached as an appendix to  professional paper	45	45	All of the tasks are broken down into their lowest levels and follow the sample format for the WBS. Documents is attached as an appendix to a professional paper
Gantt chart shows all major project tasks using Excel and following the sample. All tasks are labeled Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper	45	45	Gantt chart shows all major project tasks using Excel and following the sample. All tasks are labeled. Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations are consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition. Professional paper follows guidelines for Writing a Professional Paper.	10	10	Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations are consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition. Professional paper follows guidelines for Writing a Professional Paper.
Total	100	100	A quality assignment will meet or exceed all of the above requirements.

 

Grading Rubric

Assignment Criteria	Exceptional (100%) Outstanding or highest level of performance	Exceeds (88%) Very good or high level of performance		Meets (80%) Competent or satisfactory level of performance	Needs Improvement (38%) Poor or failing level of performance		Developing (0) Unsatisfactory level of performance
Content Possible Points = 90 Points
All of the tasks are broken down into their lowest levels and follow the sample format for the WBS. Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper	45 Points	40 Points		36 Points	17 Points		0 Points
	All of the tasks are broken down into their lowest levels and follow the sample format. Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper	Most of the tasks are broken down into their lowest levels and follow the sample format Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper		Some of the tasks are broken down into their lowest levels or did not follow the sample format. Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper	Few of the tasks are broken down into their lowest levels		The sample format was not followed.
Gantt chart shows all major project tasks using Excel and following the sample. All tasks are labeled. Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper	45 Points	40 Points		36 Points	17 Points		0 Points
	Gantt chart shows all major project tasks using Excel and following the sample. All tasks are labeled. Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper	Gantt chart shows most of the major project tasks using Excel and following the sample. All tasks are labeled. Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper		Gantt chart shows some of the major project tasks using Excel or does not follow the sample. Tasks are not labeled. Document is attached as an appendix to a professional paper	Gantt chart shows few of the major project tasks using Excel.		Gantt chart does not follow the sample.
Content Subtotal							_____of 90 points
Format Possible Points = 10 Points
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations are consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition. Professional paper follows guidelines for Writing a Professional Paper.	10 Points		9 Points	8 Points	4 points		0 Points
	No grammar, spelling, punctuation, reference, citation, or APA errors Professional paper follows guidelines for Writing a Professional Paper.		1 total grammar, spelling, punctuation, reference, citation, or APA error Professional paper follows guidelines for Writing a Professional Paper.	2 total grammar, spelling, punctuation, reference, citation, or APA errors Professional paper does not follows guidelines for Writing a Professional Paper.	3 total grammar, spelling, punctuation, reference, citation, or APA errors. No Professional paper		4 or more total grammar, spelling, punctuation, reference, citation, or APA errors
Format Subtotal						_____of  10 points
Total Points							_____of  100 points