WBS in Agile Projects

2020-12-29

There is a misconception out there that if you use an Agile Kanban method to manage your projects, you can’t use Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and vice versa.

There is a misconception that Agile Kanban and WBS can’t work hand-in-hand together

The argument against WBS by those who practice Agile Kanban is that at the beginning of a project, the scope of the work is not known.  They also note, during the project’s lifecycle, the requirements often change, the market changes, and the competition will not sit idle but surprises you. So according to Agile practitioners, spending time on WBS at the beginning of the project is useless and a waste of time for any Agile project.   

This assumption is totally wrong.  Same as Kanban and any other Agile methods, WBS allows you to establish what you need to do currently as a separate project apart from your ultimate goals.  If it is important that you begin with end in your mind, meaning you don’t want to totally lose sight of your ultimate goals while you are doing your current project, then WBS allows you to relate your current project with your ultimate goal. There is actually no conflict between Kanban Agile and WBS.

Agile Kanban and WBS each has weakness and using them together benefits projects

The biggest complaint about the Agile method is the lack of certainty as to when the project will finish. It is very important that project teams begin with end in their minds.

The biggest objection to WBS is that only trained project management professionals can use it effectively but projects often involve non-PMP-certified personnel. 

Modern project management software such as 8Manage Agile Large Project allows to switch between Kanban view and WBS view dynamically and in real-time.

Getting the best of both worlds

Kanban Agile is simple, visual and easy-to-use. But when you have a large project of important ultimate goals, using Kanban purely would be hard to begin with end in people’s minds since what they are currently doing in their current activities can be related to their ultimate goals visually in any way.  

Many trained project managers use WBS to get a handle on the complex and large projects. People can switch from the Kanban view to the WBS view in real-time if they want to see the big picture. On the other hand, if people want to focus on a number of activities at hands, they can simply use the Kanban view.  

Being able to dynamic switching between Kanban Agile and WBS views creates the best project management method to plan, track, and manage complex projects.