Why should team members participate in making a Work Breakdown Structure?

An important motive for creating Work Breakdown Structures is giving the team members responsible for doing the work some confidence that management understands the true scope of that work. Who wants to commit to a project timeline only to find out later that the work was misunderstood and grossly underestimated? The WBS can actually be used as a crucial component of protecting team morale. There is nothing worse for team members starting a project than the sinking feeling that once again their management does not understand the work at the team members' level. Once again, management will set incorrect expectations based on a coarse and insufficient understanding of what actually has to get done at the team members' desks and benches. Once again, management will ask them to do the impossible. And once again, there will be pressure, acrimony, and disappointment when the impossible is not accomplished.…

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