Project Plan Work Breakdown Structure

The work breakdown structure (WBS) that you set up for a project becomes the WBS for that project's plan. You can plan at different levels of the WBS, depending on the plan settings and the planning types enabled for the project's company.

Labor Planning

For labor planning, the complete project WBS is always included in the plan WBS, and you can only assign resources to the lowest-level elements in a given branch of the WBS. You do not have the option to assign resources at higher levels of the structure.

If Vantagepoint is set up to use labor codes, however, you can choose to plan labor at a more detailed level by adding labor codes to the plan WBS below the lowest-level project WBS elements. For example, if the phase level is the lowest level in a branch of the project WBS, you can add labor codes below phases in the corresponding branch of the plan WBS. If you add labor codes to a branch of the plan WBS, that becomes the only level in that branch at which you can assign resources.

If you add labor codes, they are included in the plan WBS displayed on the Labor tab of the Plan form and in the planning grids in Resource Management.

Notes on Labor Code Planning

Keep the following in mind when you are considering planning at the labor code level:

• If Vantagepoint is not set up to use labor codes, the option to plan at that level is not available. If Vantagepoint is set up to use labor codes, you have the option, on a project-by-project basis, to plan at that level, but you are not required to.
• You can add labor codes to all branches of the plan WBS and do all labor planning at that level, or you can use labor codes only in selected branches of the WBS.
• Though labor codes in Vantagepoint can be set up with up to five internal levels, adding labor codes to a plan WBS only adds one level to that WBS.
• Before you can add labor codes to a plan WBS, you must select the labor code levels that you consider significant for planning purposes. You do that on the Labor Codes tab of the Plan Settings dialog box. To then add a labor code to the plan, you first select a combination of codes, one code for each of the selected labor code levels, to construct the full labor code, and you then add that labor code below one or more elements in the plan WBS.
• If you add labor codes to a branch of a plan WBS and later you add a new project WBS level between those labor codes and their parent WBS element, those labor codes are automatically moved below the first project WBS element added at that new WBS level. For example, if you have labor codes under Phase 1, and you later add a task level to the project WBS under Phase 1, with Task 10 as the first added task, all of the labor codes originally under Phase 1 are moved under Task 10. After you add other tasks under Phase 1, you can move individual labor codes from Task 10 to other tasks, if necessary. (Note this situation can also occur if you use the Key Conversion utility to enable a new WBS level for a project.)
• In addition to labor codes that you add to a plan yourself, other labor codes may be added automatically when employees charge JTD hours to them in time records. If the relevant branch of the plan WBS does not include the time record labor code (either an exact match or wildcard match) but includes other labor codes, that branch of the plan is updated to include that labor code and a resource assignment for the employee under it. (If the relevant branch of the plan WBS includes no labor codes, Vantagepoint assumes that you do not want to plan at the labor code level and makes the resource assignment under the lowest-level project WBS element, rather than under the labor code.)
• When you add a labor code to the current plan WBS, it is also added automatically to the WBS of the baseline plan, if a baseline exists. If the baseline WBS element under which the labor code is added has planned hours or amounts, those are moved down to the labor code. (This is true of all structural changes to the current plan WBS. Vantagepoint keeps the current plan WBS and the baseline WBS the same.)
• If you plan at the labor code level, you can use the Budget Validation options on the Accounting tab of the Projects form to implement automatic validation of time records against the plan based on the labor codes that the employee enters for the time records. For more information, see Accounting Tab of the Projects Form and Budget Validation for Timesheets.

Example: Plan WBS Without Labor Codes

Project A uses three WBS levels. However, while the Phase 1 branch of the WBS contains two tasks, the Phase 2 branch does not use the task level of the WBS. As a result, for Phase 1, you can only assign resources to Task 1 or Task 2, the lowest-level elements in that branch of the WBS. You cannot assign resources directly to Phase 1. For Phase 2, however, you assign resources directly to the phase because it is the lowest-level element in that branch of the WBS.

Project A

• Phase 1
  • Task 1
  • Task 2
• Phase 2

Example: Plan WBS With Labor Codes

Project A uses three WBS levels. However, while the Phase 1 branch of the WBS contains two tasks, the Phase 2 branch does not use the task level of the WBS. In addition, you also decide to plan labor at the labor code level in some cases.

Because Phase 1 uses the task level of the WBS, you can only add labor codes below tasks, as illustrated below by LC1 and LC2 under Task 1. Because Phase 2 is the lowest-level element in its branch of the WBS, you can add labor codes directly below it (LC3 and LC4).

Project A

• Phase 1
  • Task 1
    • LC1
    • LC2
  • Task 2
• Phase 2
  • LC3
  • LC4

Given the above plan WBS, you can only make resource assignments to the following plan elements, all of which are lowest-level elements in their respective branches:

• LC1
• LC2
• Task 2
• LC3
• LC4

Expense and Consultant Planning

In contrast to labor planning, you can choose to plan expenses and consultants at a level of the WBS above the lowest level, but you do not have an option to plan in greater detail than is supported by the project WBS. To plan at a higher level, you select the WBS planning levels for expenses and consultants on the Expenses tab and Consultants tab on the Plan Settings dialog box. This enables you, for example, to plan labor at the lowest possible level of the WBS but assign expenses, and enter planned amounts for them, at a higher level of the WBS.

If you select a planning level other than the lowest level for expenses or consultants, the plan WBS on the Expenses or Consultants tab of the Plan form only displays WBS elements at the selected level or higher. Any lower-level elements are hidden.

Example: Expenses Plan WBS at Lowest Level

Project A uses three WBS levels. However, while the Phase 1 branch of the WBS contains two tasks, the Phase 2 branch does not use the task level of the WBS. If you select Lowest Level in Planning Level on the Expenses tab of the Plan Settings dialog box, you can only assign expenses to Task 1 or Task 2, the lowest-level elements in that branch of the WBS. You cannot assign expenses directly to Phase 1. For Phase 2, however, you assign expenses directly to the phase because it is the lowest-level element in that branch of the WBS.

Project A

• Phase 1
  • Task 1
  • Task 2
• Phase 2

In the planning grid on the Expenses tab of the Plan form, the full plan WBS displays in this case.

Example: Expenses Plan WBS Not at Lowest WBS Level

Project A uses three WBS levels, as shown below.

Project A

• Phase 1
  • Task 1
  • Task 2
• Phase 2

If you select Plan Level 2, rather than Lowest Level, in Planning Level on the Expenses tab of the Plan Settings dialog box, that indicates that you are only interested in planning expenses at the phase level, the second level of the plan WBS. As a result, you assign all expenses to the phases, and Vantagepoint no longer displays lower levels of the WBS (in this case, the task level) in the planning grid on the Expenses tab of the Plan form :

Project A

• Phase 1
• Phase 2

Unit Planning

Similar to labor planning, you can only assign units to the lowest-level elements in a given branch of the plan WBS. You do not have the option to assign units at higher levels of the structure.

You can create a new, lowest WBS level in a branch that has existing planned unit assignments and/or unit contract amounts if there are no charged transactions for the project. When you create a new WBS level, Vantagepoint automatically moves the unit assignments down to the new lowest WBS level. On the Contract tab of the Plan form, the new WBS level does not have any unit contract amounts and compensation amounts. The selected Project Entering Method in Settings > Project > Contract Management determines whether the existing unit contract amounts are retained or removed on other levels in the branch.

If you delete any level of the WBS in a project that has no transactions, Vantagepoint also deletes any planned unit or baseline assignments and unit contract amounts under the selected record's branch.

If existing transactions have been charged to the project, use the Key Conversion utility to add or delete a WBS level. When you add the first phase or task on the WBS level in Utilities > Key Conversions > Enable Phases/Tasks, Vantagepoint moves down any planned unit assignments, existing charges, and planned values of the project or phase to the new lowest WBS level in the branch. When you turn off the phase or task WBS level in a project that has existing transactions in Utilities > Key Conversions > Disable Phases/Tasks, Vantagepoint checks for any planned unit assignments, existing charges, and planned values that are directly under the disabled phase or task, and moves them up to the new lowest level of the branch.

Combining projects, phases, or tasks may also impact plan data and the plan work breakdown structure. When you combine project, phase, or task records and there are planned unit assignments, Vantagepoint checks for matching unit assignment components in the existing and new records to determine whether to merge or add unit assignments in the new record. For example, in cases where the unit number, unit table, and account are the same in both records and are under the same WBS parent record, Vantagepoint combines these assignments and, as necessary, expands the assignment dates and plan dates on the receiving project. Vantagepoint also performs the same checks when you use the Project Closeout utility (Utilities > Updates > Project Closeout).

Unit assignments are moved along with other plan data when you move phases to another project or move tasks to another phase.

Baseline Plan WBS

Vantagepoint automatically keeps the current plan WBS and the baseline plan WBS the same. When you make any change to the WBS of the current plan, a corresponding change is made to the baseline WBS.

In some cases, a WBS change may also require moving labor, expenses, consultant, and unit plan assignments so that all planned hours, amounts, and quantities in the baseline are assigned to lowest-level WBS elements. For example, if a phase has planned labor hours and later a labor code is added below that phase in the baseline WBS, those planned hours are automatically moved down in the structure to that labor code.