Case Study: Work Breakdown Structure

A mid-sized medical device company was developing monitoring equipment with a related disposable, but had issues with a dysfunctional, poorly aligned team. The team was composed of members from two different sites working in disparate directions on the hardware, software, and disposable.

AlvaMed brought in an experienced project manager and development engineer, who led a one-day work breakdown structure meeting to align the team around shared objectives, and then plan out the project tasks, linkages, and resources. During the work breakdown structure meeting it became apparent that the team had overlooked large parts of verification and validation which required them to integrate the system, and work together.

Although the project manager had to work hard to keep the team constructively focused, a complete work breakdown was developed. The project manager then created a complete schedule, which served as a mutually agreed upon road map for the team.

  Ellen Golds
 Vice-President
 Product Development
 & Project Management