Quality Software Project Management

Chapter 9. Identifying the Tasks and Activities

As described in Chapter 8, “Creating the Work Breakdown Structure,” building a product-oriented work breakdown structure (WBS) involves decomposing a large activity (the whole project) into successively smaller activities (top-down approach) until the work is described in detail to manage properly. Alternatively, it involves brainstorming everything that needs to be done as detailed activities and arranging them until enough are present to carry out and manage the work (bottom-up approach). In either case, identifying the right activities for the work is paramount.

The triple constraint for any project (scope, schedule, cost) is largely dependent on getting the scope right because it usually drives ...