MGT8022 PROJECT-BASED MANAGEMENT

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 MGT8022 ASSIGNMENT 1 MARK SHEET – PROJECT-BASED MANAGEMENT
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k
ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS (out 0 0 to 29 30 to 38 39 to 44 45 to 50 51 to 60 /60
of 70)
Critical analysis essay
Introduction to the essay No introduction Poor introduction provided, or Basic introduction Adequate introduction Good clear Clear, concise and
provided irrelevant information provided provided introduction provided comprehensive introduction
providing essential details
Analysis: Scope definition may be expressed by No analysis of the Poor or inadequate analysis of Basic analysis of the Adequate analysis of Good analysis of the Clear, concise and
designated, clearly defined boundaries, such as: nominated topic the topic topic, with limited use the topic using topic using comprehensive analysis of the
product breakdown structure (a cascade of products, of theory to support appropriate theory appropriate theory topic, supported by appropriate
sub-products, assemblies and components) the analysis theory, figures and tables.
● organisation breakdown structure (a cascade of
resource types, skill types or activities
● work breakdown structure (a cascade of the
products and work activities),and/or
● some other form which comprehensively
defines products and activities”.
IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS IS A CRITICAL
ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF BREAKDOWN
STRUCTURES AND NOT OF THE WHOLE
PROJECT.
Conclusions drawn from the analysis No conclusions Poor or inadequate Basic conclusions Adequate conclusions Good conclusions Clear, concise and
provided conclusions provided provided derived from the derived from the comprehensive conclusions
preceding analysis preceding analysis derived from, and justifiably
supported by, the preceding
analysis
RESEARCH & ACADEMIC THEORY 0 0 to 14 15-22 23 to 30
(out of 30) /30
Critical analysis uses appropriate theoretical No use of theoretical Poor or inadequate use of Basic use of Adequate use of Good use of Extensive use of theoretical
principles as a framework for analysis principles theoretical principles theoretical principles theoretical principles theoretical principles principles and appropriate
application to the project and its
environment
Argument is well structured, logical, and well No logical argument Poor or inadequate structure Basic structure and Appropriate structure Good structure and Well structured, logical, and well
reasoned (compelling) provided and argument argument and argument argument reasoned
Figures and tables are effectively and appropriately No use of tables Poor or inadequate usage of Basic usage of figures Adequate usage of Good usage of Excellent usage and adaptation
used and adapted in the analysis to clearly illustrate/ and/or figures where figures and tables and tables figures and tables figures and tables of figures and tables
compare/contrast theoretical principles with project their inclusion was
practices. justified
Evidence of research is provided to support the No evidence of Poor or inadequate evidence Basic evidence of Adequate evidence of Good evidence of Evidence of extensive research
analysis and argument. research into the topic of research research research beyond the research beyond the beyond the study materials and
study materials and set study materials and set text to support the analysis
 text set text and argument
Evidence of knowledge of study materials and No indication of Poor or inadequate indication Basic indication of Indication of adequate Indication of good Evidence of extensive
general knowledge of the project management knowledge of study of knowledge of study knowledge of study knowledge of study knowledge of study knowledge of study materials
domain is provided materials materials materials materials materials and of PM domain
Quality of resources – evidence of use of research No use of research Poor quality sources of Basic quality sources Adequate quality of Good quality of Excellent sources of research
resources from quality sources (e.g. journal articles, resources reference materials (e.g. of reference materials sources of research sources of research resources, including journals,
texts, conference papers, etc) websites, Wikipedia, etc) (e.g. websites, texts, conference papers, etc.
Wikipedia, etc)
Citations are effectively and appropriately provided No use of citations Poor or inadequate use of Basic use of citations Adequate use of Good use of citations Extensive and appropriate use of
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(e.g. alphabetical order) conventions of AGPS 6 style
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 MGT8022

PROJECT BASED MANAGEMENT

Essay on critical analysis of the use of project breakdown

structures

Assignment 1
Semester 3 2015

Prepared for: Barrie Todhunter

Prepared by: Yogeaswaran Ravi

Student Number: 0061071121

Date Submitted: 3rd January 2016

 Essay on critical analysis of the use of project breakdown structures

This paper has been produced to review and analyse one of project management

techniques called breakdown structure that has been utilized in the Green ICT project by

Australian National University and how fundamental it was to the success or failure of the

project. In order to achieve the objective of the paper, it looks into the background of the

project and critical discussion on the types of breakdown structure that has been implemented

in the project by comparing it with scholarly articles, academic books, and online academic

articles. The types of breakdown structure that has been identified in this project are work

breakdown structure, risk breakdown structure, and resource breakdown structure. Simon

Harris in his article has defined breakdown structure as ‘output from the use of the

decomposition technique’ while ‘decomposition is a technique which asks what this is

composed of?’ (Harris, pg.3, 2009). How does all of these breakdown structure helps to make

a project success? Again Simon Harris in his article stated that breakdown structures are exist

to achieve its specific result and all of these breakdown structures are needed to be aligned in

order to achieve the expected result (Harris, 2009).The main objective of Green ICT project is

to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide by information and communication technology

(ICT) in Australian National University (ANU). Thus it focuses in collecting the data of

emission, ways to reduce, increase awareness on green ICT, and reduce the emission of

carbon dioxide by 2 percent within the campus’s area. The project period is 14 months.

Work breakdown structure (WBS) has been applied within Green ICT project based on

the number of characteristic of work breakdown structure identified as per Table 1.

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 Essay on critical analysis of the use of project breakdown structures

Table 1: Comparison on WBS characteristic

(Colenso, 2000) (Swiderski, 2014) (Taylor, 2009) Green ICT
Hierarchical Hierarchical tree
Hierarchically coded decomposition structure
Two or more component
defined Smaller components x
Output defined Deliverables oriented Planned outcomes x
Easily estimated and
controlled x
Scope definition Scope of work x

Legend
x: characteristic
matching with Green
ICT

Green ICT project has clearly identified the output and outcome of this project and

further classified the measurable of the product as the output while the impact and result of

the project as the outcome. In clearly identifying the output and outcomes it matches with the

views of Colenso, Swiderski and Taylor in where all three of them has the same view about

WBS where it needs to have a defined output as this will enable to the project team to

remained focused on planning the project to meet the desired output. To further add, the

Greent ICT project has come up with simple is and is not on the scope of the project. Both

Swiderski, 2014 and Taylor, 2009 viewed this as another important aspect of WBS as this

ensure the project team to be on the right track. Nonetheless, the Green ICT also has ensured

work components are broken into smaller components so that it can be easily controlled

(Taylor, 2009).

Although some might argue that there is no WBS in the Green ICT project due to key

characteristic such as the hierarchical tree structure is missing in the project plan. This is due

to the view of some scholar such as such Kliem, Ludin and Roberson who sees the

hierarchical tree structure as the major component that identifies all the task in WBS

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 Essay on critical analysis of the use of project breakdown structures

regardless how small it can be and ensuring positive progress and impact to the project which

is also aligned with the definition of WBS by The Project Management Institute which says ‘a

deliverable oriented grouping of project elements that organises and defines the total work

scope of the project’ (Hillson, pg.87, 2003). As such project team for the Green ICT project

does not have the clear breakdown of the task of each person or group as such might face the

issue of organizing and controlling the task, allocating the right resource for each task (Kliem,

Ludin and Robertson, 1997) which might result the team in not able to close the project in the

planned time frame or failure in completing the project. Nonetheless, Greent ICT has applied

a few other core characteristic of WBS aside from discussed above such as activities, task and

milestone (Norman, Brotherton and Fried, 2008) being identified through Gantt chart in the

project thus able to measure the progress of the project and taking the necessary actions to

ensure the project is completed.

Although the risk breakdown structure (RBS) is not clearly defined in the Green ICT

project, nonetheless some of the RBS principles has been clearly applied within the project

for risk management as per Table 2.

Table 2: Comparison on RBS characteristic

(Hillson and Simon,

(PMBOK, 2000) (Hillson, 2003) 2012) Green ICT project
Hierarchical decomposition Hierarchical Hierarchical
Potential risk identified Source of risk Source of risk x
Category Type of Risk Category
Subcategory Breakdown
Risk owner x
Risk Probability Risk Probability Risk Probability x
Risk Impact Risk Impact Risk Impact

Legend
x: characteristic
matching with Green
ICT

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 Essay on critical analysis of the use of project breakdown structures

By applying this few principles of RBS Green ICT project team is able to prepare a risk

management plan as it identifies the source of risk or the potential risk, assigning risk owner

and the probability of the risk. However, as opposed to the views of the likes such as Hillson,

2003 and PMBOK, 2000 where the identified risks needs to be hierarchically grouped into

categories and further breakdown it into a much smaller components in order to identify all

the fine details and risk associating with that particular group Green ICT project team took a

much simpler method by associating the potential risk to the all of the small task or

component of the project without hierarchically structuring or grouping it.

Hillson viewed that in order to ensure the effectiveness and the success of a risk

management plan in any project, it doesn’t only rely by identifying the source of risk or

grouping the risk into categories based on the probability of its occurrence, but more

importantly how the risk data that was collected is being interpreted and comprehended in

order for it to be used as an action, a hierarchical RBS helps to provides this additional benefit

as the RBS breakdown the source of the risk into smaller components and increase the details

of the potential risk (Hillson, 2002). Though Green ICT project has not defined RBS in a

hierarchical structure, but what the project team has done is that it has clearly identified the

smaller components of the risk and associated these smaller components with the probability

of risk ranging from low, medium and to high which show their level of understanding

regarding the risk associated with the project and subsequently developed response to these

risks by preparing contingency and mitigation plan. Though it is still aligned with the

definition of RBS as quoted by Hillson which is ‘a source-oriented grouping of risks that

organizes and defines the total risk exposure of the project or business’ (Hillson, pg.87, 2003).

Nonetheless by missing out the hierarchically risk structure, the project team misses on

additional insight of the risk assessment as simply listing down the risk will not be able to

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 Essay on critical analysis of the use of project breakdown structures

help the project team to further understand on the risk exposure type, the source of the risk

which is highest to the project, dependency of the areas and link between the risks or

preparing a generic response for risks which are group dependent (Hillson, 2002).

The resource breakdown structure that has been applied in Green ICT project is in the

context of human resource management based on below general characteristic of resource

breakdown structure that that has been observed on in the Green ICT project. Table 3 shows

the comparison on the characteristic of resource breakdown and the ones that has been

identified in the Green ICT project.

Table 3: Comparison on resource breakdown structure characteristic

(PMBOK, 2000) (Rad and Anantatmula, 2005) Green ICT project

Hierarchical structure x
Human Resource x
Material
Resource Category Grouping Resources x
Resource type Dividing Resource
Identify and analyze
Resource assignment x
Consistency

Legend
x: characteristic
matching with Green
ICT

Although the resource breakdown structure has been applied according to the general

characteristic that viewed by PMBOK, 2000 and Rad and Anantatmula, 2005 as it has been

hierarchically structured and the resource are grouped. However, the resource breakdown

structure fail to breakdown the human resource needed to complete this project into smaller

components with its specific position title and skill level (Rad and Anantatmula, 2005) except

for the project steering committee members. Rather, it has grouped the resource into general

working function and this brings concerns to the project completion because Rad and

Anantatmula views resource as ‘anything that will cost money to obtain and is necessary to

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 Essay on critical analysis of the use of project breakdown structures

complete the project’ (Rad and Anantatmula, pg.73, 2005). Although the Green ICT is an

internal project which might not have monetary cost for human resources, however the cost of

working hour needs to be considered. Taking this into consideration the resource breakdown

structure has not clearly identify the numbers of labor or the project member needed, the

specific task assigned to these individual and the number of hour that they might need to

contribute in order to complete the project thus leaving the project to the vulnerability of

shortage of human resource or the optimal manpower required to complete the project within

the project duration. One of the positive point that has been identified in the resource

breakdown structure which has been applied in the Green ICT project is that the resource

assignment. The resource assignment has been clearly identified as to what is needed to be

done by each resource category.

Based on Hillson, any project will face two major challenges and one of it is level of

the complexity on how the work is to be done while another is the risk face in achieving the

end result of the project thus gives rise to two techniques of project management on how to

structure the work, challenges and overcoming these challenges. These are work breakdown

structure and risk breakdown structure. (Hillson, 2002). In project Green ICT, despite the two

main technique has been applied, by breaking down the works to smaller component and

identifying the source of the risk. It has still missed out some of the important essence of

these breakdown structures, such as hierarchy structure which doesn’t provide a detailed

breakdown on the work that needs to be performed. This might become a factor to the

disruption of the project to be completed in time despite it has been translated to Gantt chart

as WBS purpose is to allow the project team to understand on the schedule and estimation of

the cost which is not sufficient through Gantt chart alone. Further on resource breakdown

structure for human resource management, it didn’t clearly identify the human resources it

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 Essay on critical analysis of the use of project breakdown structures

needs, such as position or skills in order to complete the project which is necessary for

resource breakdown (Rad and Anantatmula, 2005).

References

Colenso, K. (2000). Creating The Work Breakdown Structure. Artemis Management Systems.

[online] Available at: http://pmprofy.com/files/625/wbs.pdf [Accessed 18 Dec. 2015].

Harris, S. (2009). The Breakdown Structure; Getting It Right: Concepts, Principles, Processes

and Matching Vocabulary. [online] p.3. Available at:

http://www.asapm.org/articles/TheBreakdownStructurePt2.pdf [Accessed 16 Dec. 2015].

Hillson, D. (2002). Use a Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) toUnderstand Your

Risks. Proceedings of the Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium.

[online] Available at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237713589_Use_a_Risk_Breakdown_Structure

_RBS_to_Understand_Your_Risks.

Hillson, D. (2003). Using a Risk Breakdown Structure in project management. Journal of

Facilities Management, [online] 2(1), pp.85-97. Available at:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/1472596041080

8131 [Accessed 19 Dec. 2015].

Hillson, D. and Simon, P. (2012). Practical project risk management. Tysons Corner, Va.:

Management Concepts.

Kliem, R., Ludin, I. and Robertson, K. (1997). Project management methodology. New York:

Marcel Dekker.

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 Essay on critical analysis of the use of project breakdown structures

Norman, E., Brotherton, S. and Fried, R. (2008). Work breakdown structures. Hoboken, N.J.:

John Wiley & Sons.

PMBOK, (2000). Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)

(4th Edition). Newtown Square: Project Management Institute.

Rad, P. and Anantatmula, V. (2005). Project planning techniques. Vienna, Va.: Management

Concepts, pg.73.

Swiderski, M. (2014). WBS According to PMBOK - workbreakdownstructure.com. [online]

Workbreakdownstructure.com. Available at:

http://www.workbreakdownstructure.com/work-breakdown-structure-according-to-

pmbok.php [Accessed 16 Dec. 2015].

Taylor, M. (2009). How to Develop Work Breakdown Structures. Systems Management

Services. [online] Available at: http://www.projectmgt.com [Accessed 16 Dec. 2015].

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