Understanding WBS Summary
The WBS Summary activity type in Primavera P6 is specifically designed for aggregating and summarizing data from a collection of activities that share a common WBS code. It provides an overview, condensing extensive information into easily digestible bits, thereby enhancing the project’s clarity and comprehensibility.
When to Use WBS Summary?
The WBS Summary is particularly beneficial during top-down resource planning and estimating. It allows for the aggregation of dates, duration, and percent complete values, thereby providing a comprehensive view of the project’s progress. It also enables automatic progressing based on activity updates, which greatly reduces the manual effort required to update and maintain the project schedule. Interestingly, the WBS Summary activity type can also replace the usage of level of effort (LOE) activity in many cases.
Advantages of WBS Summary
The WBS Summary activity type comes with a suite of advantages.
- It provides a high-level view of project progress, which is crucial for assessing overall project health.
- It is highly efficient for top-down resource planning and estimating, allowing resource estimates to be made at a broader level.
- The automatic updating capability reduces manual effort, making it an effective tool for managing large projects.
- Moreover, the WBS Summary will not impact by any predecessor and will not drive any successor, only impacted by the activities within the WBS.
Disadvantages of WBS Summary
Despite its numerous benefits, the WBS Summary activity type has some limitations.
- It lacks logic as it will appear as an open-ended activity unless some relationships are made.
- It may add complexity for new users unfamiliar with its functionality.
- Furthermore, some project management methodologies may not commonly recognize or utilize the WBS Summary, which could lead to its rejection.
