About WBS Summary Activities (2024)

FAQs

About WBS Summary Activities? ›

Roll-Up of Data: The WBS Summary Activity allows for the aggregation or roll-up of data from lower-level activities. This means that you can summarize the duration, cost, or resource allocation of multiple related activities into a single summary activity. This simplifies the tracking and reporting of project progress.

A WBS summary activity type represents a group of activities that share a common work breakdown structure (WBS) level. The summary-level WBS activity enables the aggregation of dates for the activity group. Aggregate values for a WBS summary activity are calculated when the project is scheduled.

A summary task is any task in a WBS that has subtasks below it. In Table 5-1 above, the top-level Task #4 is a summary task as are Task #s 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4. A subtask is any task below a summary task in a WBS hierarchy.

Level of Effort activities are most popularly used to allocate overhead resources to your project. They will automatically change their dates based on the progress of the project. The advantage of the Level of Effort over a WBS summary is that you have the flexibility to link it to any activity you want.

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a project management tool that takes a step-by-step approach to complete large projects with several moving pieces. By breaking down the project into smaller components, a WBS can integrate scope, cost and deliverables into a single tool.

A summary activity or hammock activity groups related activities in a schedule over a segment of the project's life. By using hammock activities the summarization process for the project is simplified by minimizing the total number of activities to be displayed.

A summary task is a parent or top-level task that groups together a set of related subtasks. For example, a workspace might contain the summary task Addition which itself contains the subtasks Rent truck and Arrange delivery of materials. Summary tasks help project managers organize related tasks in the workspace.

Summary tasks are always fixed-duration types because a summary task's start and finish dates are determined by its subtasks.

There are two main types of WBS: deliverable-based, and phase-based. They depend on whether you want to divide your project in terms of time or scope.

How does WBS affect the work estimates of tasks activities? ›

Essentially, using a work breakdown structure enables you to take a top-down look at your project and break it into the tasks and subtasks that will get you to completion. It's a helpful tool that defines a detailed cost or time estimate and provides guidance for schedule development and control.

In Primavera P6, driving relationships appear on the Gantt Chart as solid lines: red for critical path and black for non-critical activities. When “crashing” the schedule we must focus on driving relationships in order to move up the start dates of critical path activities, thereby shortening the project duration.

For example, if you're creating a work breakdown structure for manufacturing a car, you'll include items such as “car body” (a deliverable), not “welding steel” (an activity). Before we dive further into the benefits and impact of a WBS, there are a few additional definitions you should know.

A WBS or "Work Breakdown Structure" is the result of the exercise of decomposing the work scope of your project in smaller levels.

Work breakdown structure (WBS) in project management is a method for completing a complex, multi-step project. It's a way to divide and conquer large projects to get things done faster and more efficiently.

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a visual tool for defining and tracking a project deliverable and all the small components needed to create it. With a work breakdown structure, you can stay focused on what you need to accomplish as you move toward the project deadline.