Organisation is everything! The added value of a work breakdown structure

Do you want to organize your project properly and consider all important aspects from the outset? A so-called work breakdown structure (PSP) will support you in this. In our knowledge article you will learn how to set it up and what added value the PSP has for your project management. After all, projects and the tasks associated with them are not always simple and manageable, but often multi-layered and complex. For you, this means that you have to keep an eye on many project stages at the same time. With your PSP.

Why create a work breakdown structure?

The PSP helps you both in the start-up phase and in the implementation phase of your project and brings many advantages, such as

• a good overview

  Wenn Du einen Projektstrukturplan anlegst, ordnest Du alle anstehenden Aufgaben in Projektmanagement Arbeitspakete. Das Gesamtprojekt erhält dadurch einen logischen, in sich geschlossenen und strukturierten Aufbau. Dies erleichtert Dir die Übersicht über die einzelnen Projektabschnitte und Aufgabenbereiche.

• clearly assigned responsibilities

  Once the individual work packages have been defined, you can nominate the appropriate persons to supervise the sections and take responsibility for them. This means that you immediately have a defined contact person for all related tasks.
  If you have well distributed responsibility for the individual sections, you will have more time to take care of the management of the overall project.

• fast progress measurement

  With a clear responsibility, you will always have a number of people who will keep you informed of progress in their areas. This allows you to check the status of your tasks and also to ensure that - if necessary - the individual tasks are distributed differently. This can be a good idea, for example, if you see that progress in one work package is behind schedule, while another team has finished its tasks more quickly.

• flexible adaptation possibilities

  As a project manager you are always at the helm with a project structure plan. If you see that requirements have changed, you can react immediately and, if necessary, reallocate work packages, call in external staff or allocate additional resources. This keeps you flexible and allows you to react quickly and reliably to changes in requirements.

• Cost Control

  The work breakdown structure provides a budget for each task. Depending on the size of your project, you can either monitor compliance with the budget yourself or have those responsible inform you about it. This gives you a good overview of your expenses and allows you to control them as required.

  
  

You can also define communication points in your PSP and use them to organize team brainstorming sessions. In this way you actively involve the team members in the project organization, motivate them and promote cooperation. Advantage: everyone is more committed to the implementation of their tasks. 

Experience shows: Organisation is everything!

This statement applies 100% to project management. Align your work breakdown structure with the following six steps to be successful:

• List all tasks

• Sort all tasks

• Define the work packages

• Assign the responsibilities

• Set the timetable

• Documentation

In our knowledge article you can read all the details about the detailed creation of your work breakdown structure and, based on the individual steps, start building your own PSP right away.