Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

There are various ways to create and edit a WBS. The Project Builder is a tool in the SAP Project System (SAP PS) that is user-friendly and allows projects to be edited quickly and efficiently. You can use the Project Builder to maintain any object in the SAP PS, except for the assignment of Production Resources/Tools (PRT). You can use context-sensitive menus, drag, and relate, and the option of defining your own worklist and set of templates to help you edit your projects more easily.

1. Worklist and templates.
2. Current project.
3. Selected object.
4. Overviews for selected object.
5. Details screen for selected object.

The structure contains the selected project data of the current project, along with its hierarchical relationships. You use the worklist to store frequently used projects, networks, and WBS elements on a user-specific basis. The worklist always displays a list of the last projects that were edited. The templates are used as a set of proposals while a project is being edited, and you can incorporate new elements from these templates in the project.

The work area displays a detailed view of the selected object in the structure overview and allows you to access the overviews of lower-level objects directly. You can then use the work area to edit individual project elements. In the Project Builder, you can navigate between the various views (detail views and overviews), graphics, and the Project Planning Board quickly and efficiently to maintain the structures.

James is a project planner at Hybrid Machinery. Linda works there as a controller. They are now discussing the topic of operative indicators of WBS elements.

You use operative indicators to define the characteristics of a WBS element and to specify what tasks the WBS element will perform during project execution.

You can flag your WBS elements using the following operative indicators:

• Planning element

  WBS elements for which you want to plan costs are flagged as planning elements.

• Account assignment element

  WBS elements to which you want to post actual costs are flagged as account assignment elements.

• Billing element

  WBS elements where you want to plan or post revenues are flagged as billing elements.

James is a project planner at Hybrid Machinery. Linda works there as a controller. They are discussing the enhancement of the project structure James has created for the investment project.

The preceding figure shows different ways to maintain WBS elements. You can use the Project Builder to create and change WBS elements. You can do this on detail screens or in the list of WBS elements.

You can use the hierarchy graphic to change WBS elements by double-clicking them. You can also create new WBS elements, and insert these in the hierarchy.

In addition to maintaining projects manually in the Project Builder or using the hierarchy graphic, you can use existing project structures or standard projects as templates. When you create a new WBS, you can use an existing WBS, a section of the project hierarchy, or a standard WBS as a template. You can also copy WBS elements from other projects or from a standard WBS in an existing WBS. In addition to Project Builder, you can use other transactions, such as those in the Project Planning Board, to create and edit a WBS.