Andre & Erich
Summary:
A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a simple visual hierarchy of deliverables and their component parts. It uses a tree structure to breakdown the complex whole into simpler pieces. When done well, the components are grouped based on their interactions to minimize boundary friction. For example, this simplified WBS for building a house is broken down based on the trades involved:
The WBS is useful for identifying gaps in the overall project scope by representing all the specifics of an individual project and is a critical input for a comprehensively scoped schedule. By creating a WBS, a project manager has a layer of hardness within his control and the schedule can now be permitted to shear in response to operational needs.
Construction executives and project managers frequently abandon WBS for the illusory hardness of a predictable project schedule. They invest their preconstruction efforts and the project’s success in ambiguous contextual details. Without a clear understanding of the project scope, chaos ensues, usually in the form of change orders, project delays, backcharges, and field disorganization.
In contrast, tradespeople are intimately familiar with the safe assumptions of their work. They are known for completing projects (or deliverables of projects) every time they pour a foundation, build a wall, or paint a room. They also dislike working on disorganized projects.
The Work Breakdown Structure is a trusted practice in the Project Management community. By repackaging the tool from an abstract concept hidden in textbooks and industry literature to a simplified hardness-creating protocol in a tradesperson’s toolbox, tradespeople will receive a learnable, legible, and ludic protocol to revive the joys of their craft through the control of their work.
As a bonus, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners has offered their apprenticeship program to test the simplified protocol. Through this partnership, we will not only learn the principles of protocol revitalization and simplification, but we will also create an institutional opportunity for continued protocol research.
What is the existing target protocol you are hoping to improve or enhance?
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) protocol as described in the Project Management Institutes (PMI): Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).
What is the core idea or insight about potential improvement you want to pursue?
By simplifying the protocol to trade specific essential, we will improve its legibility and make it easier to learn. By testing its improvement, we will make its use defensible to management. Through a training program, we will revive the tradespeople’s joy in controlling their work.
What is your discovery methodology for investigating the current state of the target protocol?
Personal experience, interviews with construction industry personnel, and literature review.
In what form will you prototype your improvement idea?
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners has offered to conduct A/B testing through its standardized full-sized mock-ups built by their apprenticeship programs. With these mock-ups, we can measure the cost/time savings of a trained group vs a control group while minimizing the confounders of skill, team dynamics, weather, and product complexity.
How will you field-test your improvement idea?
The apprentice programs will continue to provide A/B testing groups to evaluate cost/time savings.
In-the-field tradespeople, foremen, and supervisors will receive individual on-site training or be group training through workshops. They will be interviewed to determine protocol use and to evaluate improved organization, lower risks, and increased legibility to management.
Who will be able to judge the quality of your output?
Thanks to the success metrics of cost/time savings, non-experts will be able to judge the quality of our output.
In addition, the following industry experts have volunteered to judge the value of delegated organizational effort, improved risk controls, and reduced management oversight created by our subjective criteria:
Chris Simpson - Brigil Construction;
Ian Manhire - Latcon Concrete;
Jon Baron - United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
How will you publish and evangelize your improvement idea?
The creation of a train-the-trainer program, a 3-4 hours classroom-based WBS module, and a 30-minute mini-course for in-the-field training.
To broaden the interest in the training, we’ll share our results with the construction industry through industry publications, business groups, and trade unions; to impact future research, we’ll submit our findings to the Project Management Institute (PMI) to be considered as input into the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
What is the success vision for your idea?
Short-term success: Requests for the new training module.
Long-term success: Attending construction meetings where the tradespeople discuss issues with the WBS before discussing schedules. (Ideally, the project managers leading these projects will see the benefits of this system and join the bandwagon.)
Big-picture success: Providing an analogy for blockchain research using the project management standards as a metaphor for a reliable blockchain and the simplified WBS as an example of an adaptable external protocol.
