Work Breakdown Structure and Functional Elements

It is widely recognized in various literature that the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) should focus on the “What” of the project and be deliverable-oriented. However, in my experience every WBS for a major construction project will contain functional elements on higher levels, but get deliverable-oriented as you get into lower levels. I have also had several people ask me about this apparent point of contention between theory and actual practice.

In order to bring this to clarity I brought this discussion up to some Project Controls Managers and Earned Value Management experts in the industry.

For illustration, let’s review the following exert from the Work Breakdown Structure of a project I worked on in the past:

 

This particular WBS was developed by the Project Controls Team and the various Facility Managers and ultimately approved by the Project Manager. As you can see functional elements certainly appear to be present in such a Work Breakdown Structure (Detailed Engineering, Procurement, Fabrication, Assembly etc). Likewise, on level 6 you have a discipline focus – Electrical, Piping, Structural etc. Similar WBS build-ups are very typical in oil and gas projects.

When I brought this up with the industry experts they were quick to point out that while the naming of those WBS elements certainly are functional the actual scope of the work is deliverable-focus. You have one department/team completing the Electrical work, and a different department/team completing the structural work – each still represent an actual deliverable and a concrete scope of work.

In short, even if the naming of your WBS element is functional it is actually representing concrete deliverables.