Product vs Process WBS for performance measurements

[louarnold]

In order to assess performance of development projects, what is the preferred form of the WBS?

The projects are carried out by a company on a contract basis. The projects produce products consisting of hardware and software. The products are similar, but the skills are typically the same. The objective is to determine the preformance of the company carrying out these projects so that they can determine how successful they might be in other possible projects. (In essense - how well are they estimating?)

It would seem in this case that the process-based WBS seems appropriate. Is this true or not?

 

[ProjectMonkey]

I prefer not to constrain the WBS by trying to make it fit a product(prince 2) approach or process based approach.

Just ask what needs to be done and build the WBS from there.


T Morphy
MS Project tips

http://www.stakeholdermap.com/ms-project/ms-project.html

 

[louarnold]

That's not a helpful answer, but thanks anyway.

 

[jblack34]

hmmmm....I'll take a shot! Let me paraphrase the question:
"The objective is to determine the preformance of the company carrying out these projects" (In essense - how well are they estimating?).

I would simply ask for the baseline plan and then track the performance. I'm not sure I would care how a company I am contracting with structures their WBS as long as they are completing deliverables (and the project) on time and I would say within budget, but if we have a fixed price contract....then they can worry about going over budget.

If that still misses the mark, you will find more information on creating the WBS here:

http://www.pmconnection.com/modules...search&query=wbs&min=0&orderby=titleA&show=20

JBlack

http://www.pmconnection.com