Guild of Project Controls: Compendium | Roles | Assessment | Certifications | Membership

Tips on using this forum..

(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?

(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.

planning document and WBS

1 reply [Last post]
shailesh wagh
User offline. Last seen 7 years 41 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 13 Jun 2016
Posts: 2
Groups: None
  1. why the project plan is often cited as both a “living” and “controlling” document?
  2. Who should sign the project management plan and why?
  3. who is responsible for WBS ultimately?

Replies

Robert Bell
User offline. Last seen 5 years 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 8 Jun 2016
Posts: 49
Groups: None

Hi Shailesh,

Plans/schedules are referred to as "living" because they can change at any time. As a minimum throughout the lifecycle of the project the plan will be updated at least as often as the update period, be that a month, week or day. In between these updates a plan can change it's logic, durations, scope etc (through proper change control). It is living because it constantly evolves and ages and (should) never remain the same for long.

As for the WBS, personally I would say that the responsibility for initially building it is probably a joint effort with input from the planner, project manager and project team. The responsibility for keeping it maintained and for developing it throughout the project lifecycle (at least within the planning tool) I would say is that of the planner. But like with anything else in the plan, we are responsible for much but we are only accountable for maintaining planning processes and best practice. The information contained within the plan - it's WBS structure and activities etc - is ultimately owned by the project manager and accountability lies with them. All we can do is advise and hopefully a good PM will listen.