“Decomposition” and “work breakdown” are probably not the first words you want to hear with respect to the project you’re managing. However, Decomposition is perhaps the most important technique to understand when it comes to the Scope Management section of the Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam.

1. PMP® Exam Tip: Get Familiar with Decomposition
“Decomposition” and “work breakdown” are
probably not the first words you want to hear with
respect to the project you’re managing. However,
Decomposition is perhaps the most important
technique to understand when it comes to the Scope
Management section of the Project Management
Professional (PMP)® exam. Decomposition involves
breaking down the overall project workload into
smaller, more manageable tasks. These tasks can
subsequently be broken down into smaller tasks until
each piece of work can be prioritized, assigned to
resources, and tracked in the form of a Work
Breakdown Structure (WBS). The idea is to move
from large, general deliverables to the specific work
packages and tasks that make up each deliverable. In
essence, you’re carving up the individual puzzle
pieces that make up the puzzle as a whole.
The Project Management Institute (PMI)® places
great importance on Decomposition—you’ll need to
know the technique and understand how it is applied
to projects. So, what better way to learn about Decomposition than by jumping feet first into
the fire (surely there’s joke there…decomposition – fire…but, I digress)! Anyway, why not give
it a try on one of your current projects? Apply what you’re studying in real life! Here’s how to
get started:
1.
2.
Determine your main project deliverables
Create a high-level Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) by ‘chunking’ work into smaller
tasks
3.
Continue to break down high-level tasks into smaller tasks
4.
Create a system for tracking each task
5.
Verify that the resulting tasks are manageable
Just one word of caution: Make sure that you’re not spending more time ‘decomposing,’
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2. tracking, and managing tasks than it would take to simply get the work done. Your job is to
simplify—not to create more work!
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