Exploring the Importance of WBS and Network Diagrams in Projects

This essay explores the significance of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and network diagrams in project management, highlighting their effectiveness for stakeholders in managing project schedules. It contrasts WBS with network diagrams, emphasizing that while WBS doesn't display sequence dependencies or resource allocation, network diagrams excel in showing the logical sequencing of activities. The essay discusses precedence diagramming and Activity on Arrow methods, noting the benefits of network diagrams in understanding activity sequencing and dependencies. It further explains how network diagrams offer a sequential approach beneficial for stakeholders, providing updated proceedings according to a time chart, unlike the hierarchical nature of WBS. The essay concludes that network diagrams are preferred for planning, organizing, and controlling reports due to their interconnected sequence-based display of project activities.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF WBS AND NETWORK DIAGRAMS IN A PROJECT
IMPORTANCE OF WBS AND NETWORK DIAGRAMS IN A PROJECT
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IMPORTANCE OF WBS AND NETWORK DIAGRAMS IN A PROJECT
Table of Contents
Answer to question 1: 2
References: 4

IMPORTANCE OF WBS AND NETWORK DIAGRAMS IN A PROJECT
Answer to question 1:
After the assessment of required project management procedures, it can be thus stated
that the WBS and the WBS dictionary are important part of the project management that are
effective for all kind of stakeholders. They are used for managing the schedules of the project
and deliver the frameworks that help in deriving the activities which in turn helps in
scheduling the plan and helps the stakeholders associated with the project for the reason of
managing the project. There is another framework that is used for showing the logic for the
sequencing of the activity is the Network Diagram. A network diagram can be referred to as
the schematic display of all kind of the relationship that is both logical and sequential in
nature for the project.
The logical relationship of the activities of the project work is being evaluated and is
displayed in a schematic process in the network diagram activity. The most important thing
after assessing both the type of the project schedule management process that can be stated is
that the WBS neither helps in displaying the sequence dependencies between activities nor it
has the attribute of estimating the resource based allocations (Harrison & Lock, 2017). The
two diagram techniques for the network diagram are the precedence diagramming method
and the Activity on arrow method.
The study shows that the preferable method for defining the project scope is the
network diagram system. It can be agreed that the flowing from the WBS and the WBS
dictionary, creating the network diagrams do help the stakeholders in gaining a better
understanding of the sequencing of the activities. They also help the stakeholders in
understanding the dependencies between the activities and also define and evaluate the extent
estimated for project well to the stakeholders of the project (Ruiz-Martin & Poza, 2015). This
is better than the WBS as the Work breakdown structure is hierarchical in nature whereas

IMPORTANCE OF WBS AND NETWORK DIAGRAMS IN A PROJECT
project network is sequential in nature. The sequential is beneficial for the stakeholders as the
sequential nurture or the network diagrams are succeeding or are following the orders of the
stakeholders before each implementation, whereas the hierarchical nature follows the
arrangement of the different criteria into a very successive format. The network offers the
project based schedule that helps in identifying and classifying rye sequential based
dependencies and also the project timing for doing the activities (Lock, 2017). This helps the
stakeholders of the project to stay updated with the proceedings according to the time chart.
The network creates the project based work, requirements of the resources and the costing or
the budgets into a particular sequence based time frame.
Thus information that is delivered to the stakeholders is not delivered in the case or
use of WBS. The WBS is utilized for the purpose of classifying the project deliverables and
also identifies the unit which is accountable for the achievement or the conclusion of the
project within the allocated money and time (Sharon & Dori, 2014). The network based
diagrams are preferred as they are based on providing the planning and organizing and the
controlling reports. All the activities for the project will be shown in an interconnection based
sequence that will help the project manager and all the stakeholders in the planning phase as
well as in the proceedings.

IMPORTANCE OF WBS AND NETWORK DIAGRAMS IN A PROJECT
References:
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Lock, D. (2017). The essentials of project management. Routledge.
Ruiz-Martin, C., & Poza, D. J. (2015). Project configuration by means of network
theory. International Journal of Project Management, 33(8), 1755-1767.
Sharon, A., & Dori, D. (2014). A Project–product model–based approach to planning work
breakdown structures of complex system projects. IEEE Systems Journal, 9(2), 366-
376.