LETTER TO THE EDITOR
By Kik Piney
26 August 2024
Ref: Smith, K. (2024). Musing on Milestones: To Weight, or Not to Weight? That is the Question! PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue VIII, August. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/pmwj144-Aug2024-Smith-musings-on-weighted-milestones.pdf
Dear Editor,
I was very interested in Dr Kenneth Smith’s “musings” on work breakdown structures and the value or otherwise of assigning weights, with examples from programs/projects with which he had been associated. I have chosen to analyse his first example (the Public Health Project) in more detail as a basis for justifying my insistence on assigning meaningful weights to milestones. For ease of reference, I have numbered the WBS components in Dr Smith’s first example, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The Public Health Project Work Breakdown Structure
I took this list of components and restructured it in the form of a benefits map (BM). Whereas Dr Smith’s Work Breakdown Structure places all of the components at the same level, I have come up with logical groupings leading to a hierarchy of contributions towards the target benefit, in the form of deliverables, capabilities, outcomes, and the target benefit, as shown in Figure 2 below. I have not included item 12 (Patients treated) as this is simply a metric that may, or may not, be relevant [1].
One advantage of the BM is that it compels you to attempt to determine the logical (as opposed to structural) relationships between the components. When used in this way in team discussions, a BM can provide a framework for showing how each of the components contributes to the target benefit, and how they interact with each other. For example, as shown in Figure 2, I have determined that Effective Treatment (one of the key contributors to success) depends directly on the existence of three capabilities or outcomes: medical services, transportation, and community engagement [2].
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To read entire Letter to the Editor, click here
How to cite this work: Piney, C. (2024). On the Subject of WBS or BRM, Letter to the Editor, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue IX, September. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pmwj145-Sep2024-Piney-WBS-or-BRM-Letter-to-Editor.pdf
[1] As an extreme and impossible example, if the program is a total success, there will be no patients in need of treatment. However, this parameter is certainly useful for trend analysis.
[2] With Community Engagement being a direct result of Information/Education Campaigns.
