Question

George is building his work breakdown structure (WBS) to organize and distribute the project work to various departments. Which type of tasks would he use to represent a department's responsibility?

1) Summary tasks
2) Milestone tasks
3) Subtasks
4) Parent tasks

Answer 1

George would use summary tasks to represent a department's responsibility in his work breakdown structure, as they group related tasks to provide an overview of major project components.

Step-by-step explanation:

George is building his work breakdown structure (WBS) to organize and distribute the project work to various departments. The tasks he would use to represent a department's responsibility are likely summary tasks. A summary task is a collection of project tasks that together define a major piece of work within the project. These tasks provide a high-level overview of the major components of the project and are used to group related tasks together under departmental responsibilities, which helps in managing and overseeing project parts effectively.

Milestone tasks are typically used to represent significant events or achievements in the project timeline, subtasks are the individual tasks that comprise a summary task, and parent tasks are broader categories that encompass summary tasks.

The organization of a WBS is akin to the methodology students use when completing a large research project. They break down the project into phases such as brainstorming, developing a thesis, researching, drafting, and revising to make the process more manageable, just as a project manager breaks down project work into summary tasks for different departments.