Schedule breakdown and Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) need to be consistent. This consistency between both structures is particularly important when designing the finer grained schedule breakdown. Our new White Paper 2015-15 ‘How to Relate Schedule Hierarchy Levels and Work Breakdown Structure’ explains this issue in detail.

This White Paper completes White Paper 2015-14 ‘How to Build a Proper Project Schedule Hierarchy’ by relating the different schedule levels with the different levels of the Work Breakdown Structure. 

For levels 0 through 3, a rule of definition is that the level of the schedule is representative of the same number of WBS levels plus one, and an additional level of detail for the represented tasks:

Level (Schedule) + 1 = Level (WBS)

Notwithstanding the formal constraints on schedule hierarchy it is always possible to create a meaningful set of schedules. A key driver is to be consistent with the WBS when building that hierarchy, and keep the level 3 Integrated Project Schedule within a reasonable level of detail.

The details of these issues and how they can be addressed practically is available in our  new White Paper 2015-15 ‘How to Relate Schedule Hierarchy Levels and Work Breakdown Structure’.