Breaking Down Projects

The concept of breaking down projects into manageable work packages is one of the fundamental concepts behind the Project Management Body of Knowledge. The Project Management Institute (PMI) recommends using work breakdown structures (WBS) to subdivide a project into smaller manageable pieces (PMBOK 2004). These recommendations are expanded in the “Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures” (PMI 2002) and a section of this document was devoted to WBS level of detail.

PMI recommend that the WBS development process should achieve “…increasing detail until a level is reached that provides the needed insight for effective project management” (PMI 2002 page 15). To assist in applying this standard, PMI (2002) has developed 15 questions to aid in determining the appropriate WBS level of detail. The Construction Industry Institute (CII) also recommended breaking projects down into manageable work packages in their report “Work Packaging for Project Control” (CII 1988).

In 1987 the Construction Industry Institute (CII) developed a report “Work packaging for project control”. It had three main purposes (CII 1987 page 1):

1) Describe systems used in industry for defining work packages during design, procurement and construction.

2) Provide guidelines for using work packaging for project control.

3) Provide a framework for integrating work packages across design, procurement, and construction phases.