NR 640 W5 WBS and Gantt Chart Solved
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.
Project Plan Phase II: Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt Chart
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.
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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.
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.