Creating a Work Breakdown Structure

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Activities in process modules can be used to define a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). These become Capability Patterns in the rich client and can be used to generate IBM Engineering Workflow Management (EWM) work item templates and Microsoft Project plans.

Here is an example showing the WBS view of a Process module with one top level activity that defines a WBS.

Figure 1. WBS
The above screenshot highlights the key features of authoring a WBS:
  • The top Activity artifact (section 1) has the title and rich text for the WBS.

  • The Optional attribute indicates if the task or activity is optional. Unlike in the rich client, when the same task or artifact is included in multiple modules or twice in the same module it must have the same optionality value, since the value is stored on the base artifact and not in the module.

  • The Depends on link, which is called Predecessor in the rich client, is used to indicate the sequence of activities and tasks. It corresponds to the Depends on/Blocks link type in EWM. Links of this type must be module artifact links to a sibling in the same module. Links to parents, children, cousins, base artifacts, and other module’s artifacts are not valid. Avoid circular dependencies.
    • These links can be created by opening the same module in two windows and dragging and dropping artifacts from one window into the Depends on column of the other.
  • The Activity Type attribute can be optionally specified to indicate if the activity is an iteration, phase, or milestone.
  • The Extends link is used to include WBS substructures from other modules at publishing time. You can chain extends links (A extends B which extends C). Avoid creating circular references.
    • The Extends link is the correct way to repeat an Activity in the same or in different WBS structures. Directly adding the same base artifact multiple times in the same module or adding it directly to multiple modules can have unexpected consequences.
  • The Of Work Item Type link type can be optionally used to assign a work item type for EWM work item template generation. The work item type element must be a work product with the mecFilename attribute set to the name of the work item type in EWM. For example, if the mecFilename is com.ibm.team.workitem.workItemType.task, then the work item generated in EWM will be a task.
    • For tasks, this link has to be assigned on the base artifact. For activities, it must be assigned on the module artifact.
Following are some restrictions from the rich client Eclipse model:
  • Only Activities and Categories can have children in the module hierarchy.
  • Activities can only have Activities and Tasks as children.
  • Never add a link directly to an activity, but only to an activity within a specific module. For example, a custom category can have a Parent of link to an Activity within a module. It should not link directly to the base artifact. This rule also applies to links in rich text.
  • Avoid module links other than those described previously. For example, a module link from a task to a performing role or output work product is not valid. Such links must be specified on base artifacts only.