Lessons · Project management · work packages and their size
A work package: small enough to estimate, big enough to be worth tracking
The lowest box of the WBS is a work package: one deliverable, one owner, an estimate you would sign, and a common rule of thumb of 8 to 80 hours of effort.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
A package of 400 hours is reported as in progress for two months, and you find out it is in trouble in month three. A package of 40 hours is done or not done by Friday. The size of the package is the size of the surprise you are willing to accept.
How to think about it
Break a box down until you can say who owns it, how you will know it is done, and what it will cost. If the estimate is a shrug, break it again. If it takes longer to plan the box than to do it, you have gone too far.
Worked example
Box: training delivered, estimated at 320 hoursToo big to see inside. Break it.
Course material written. Trainers briefed. Four sessions of 30 staff runThree packages: 120 h, 16 h, and 4 sessions × 12 h = 48 h of trainer time.
Each has an owner, a done-test and a costCourse material: the trainer, done when the sponsor signs the deck, 120 h × $60/h = $7,200.
Your turn
Write the rule of thumb for the size of a work package.
Between 8 and hours of effort.
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Breaking everything down to the same depth. A well-understood package can stay at 80 hours; a risky one may need to be 8. The rule is about how much surprise you can afford, not about symmetry.