INTRODUCTION 57

Figure 4.7 Hierarchical layout of a typical work breakdown structure

requirement for an accurate work breakdown. The second basic requirement is that the divisions of work be
well defined or, in other words, be classified as tasks. Thus, the division of work cannot be arbitrary but has
to follow the definition of tasks so that practically meaningful divisions are produced.
The division of a projects work into tasks is not well defined and different schedulers may come up with
different sets of tasks. If a manual of construction practice is available for that particular type of project then
the scheduler can use the predefined tasks in the manual if they match with any of the projects work.
Effective work breakdown into tasks requires good experience of construction methodology and practice.
The general procedure for doing this is to start with the projects goal and successively sub-divide it into
sub-goals until a set of goals are obtained that can be defined as tasks. When represented graphically this
procedure produces a hierarchical structure called a work breakdown structure (Figure 4.7) (Naylor, 1995).
Each node represents a goal whereas its child nodes represent sub-goals that are collectively equivalent to
the parents goal. The top node in the hierarchy represents the overall project goal and the leaf nodes
represent the goals or tasks into which the project has been divided for scheduling purposes.
When should a scheduler stop further subdivisions of work? There are two general rules for this, both
requiring an understanding of the construction process. First, the leaf nodes must represent a task; that is,
they constitute a chunk of work that is commonly considered in construction practice as a unit with a
specific goal. Second, the subdivision should be carried to such an extent that no important scheduling
constraint is lost. That is, a task should be subdivided if an important constraint applies to only a portion of
the tasks work. If no such constraint exists then there is no need to further subdivide, as this will only
increase the complexity of the schedule without increasing accuracy. Figure 4.8a shows a simple work
breakdown structure for the construction of a building. Only two tasks are identified: construction of the
substructure and construction of the superstructure. This, however, is not an accurate work breakdown as
several important constraints that influence work within each task are lost. Figure 4.8b shows a more
detailed work breakdown structure where the substructure construction task has been subdivided further. This
breakdown is more effective because, for example, the constraint that excavation should occur before laying
the foundation can be modeled.
For repetitive tasks the work is further subdivided into work crews and segments of work assigned to
each crew. The breakdown of repetitive tasks will be described further in Chapter 5.