Creating a Work Breakdown Structure WBS in MindView Mind Mapping Software

Welcome to the MindView 4 Business Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Video
Welcome to the MindView 4 Work Breakdown Structure Video. In this example, we will teach you
how to use MindView to brainstorm ideas into a logical structure, ideal for creating a
WBS.
To begin creating your work breakdown structure, left-click the MindView icon, select New,
and from the view, choose top-down. The subject or idea will be the name of your project.
In this case, we will type “House at Avenue Drive.” Once I’ve created my title, I
need to left-click the main branch, and select enter from my keyboard to create my first
level. In this case; Foundations.
To continue creating the different stages of my development or work breakdown structure,
I will hit enter once to deselect, and again to create my second main level. In this case,
External Construction. Once I have typed my second name, again I hit enter two times to
create my third phase level. In this case; Internal Construction.
To speed up this tutorial, I have simply created my additional three levels. As you can see,
there are five main stages to my work breakdown structure for House at Avenue Drive.
• Foundations • External Construction
• Internal Construction • Roof
• Yard access.
My next step is to drill down further on these five main stages to include the different
areas that need to be completed.
To begin creating your next level, select the branch in question, select insert from
the keyboard and type the first stage. By hitting enter on my keyboard, it deselects.
Enter again, and it will create another sub-category. Enter two times, and we will
create the third. I will continue these same stages for external construction. By selecting
the main topic, hitting insert, and naming my topic. To speed up this tutorial, I’ve
went ahead and created my main levels, sub-levels, and in this case, sub-sub-levels.
Viewing the WBS in different ways
Now the advantage of using MindView to create a work breakdown structure is you can view
the WBS in several ways. You can view the objects as a mind map. Viewing as a mind map
is a great way to brainstorm your work breakdown structure, or to view the same information
in a more organic fashion. We have a left to right or a right to left view, showing
the same detailed information. We have a linear outline view as well. And you can also view
the information as a timeline, or as a Gantt chart, which I will show later in the presentation.
In this case, we will stay in the work breakdown structure view
Adding the WBS numbering scheme
If you would like to create your WBS numbering scheme, it’s simple in MindView. Simply
choose the home tab, choose numbering scheme, and select your desired numbering scheme.
As you can see, the branches or stages have been updated with the associated numbering
scheme.
Adding Costs to your WBS If you’d like to add costs to your WBS,
simply select the desired stage, open the calculation tab, and create your first variable.
For foundation, we will create labor hours and we’ll create materials. Once I have
created these variables, I can access them from any point in the work breakdown structure.
In this case, for interior, we will say it will be fifty labor hours and we will also
state it will be five thousand dollars in materials. As you can see, the costs have
been included on the desired branch. As I move down to exterior, the values will be
emptied, and I can enter new values. In this case, we will say thirty hours, and material
cost will be an additional twenty-five hundred.
Once you have entered all of your desired variable values, you can choose to create
settings and create them into currency values. In this case, materials will always be a currency
value, and we would like to round that value to the second decimal place. If I’d like
to do a running total on my main stage level, I can simply choose the main stage, simply
select the desired value, for instance, labor hours, select the drop-down arrow, choose
sub-branches and choose to total or sum all sub-branches. In this case, it will take the
values for labor hours of interior, exterior, and pool, and display that on the foundation’s
branch. I can follow the same stages to create a sum for materials. By selecting the drop-down,
choosing sub-branches, and choosing sum. In this case, for the foundation stage, it will
take a hundred labor hours and twelve thousand five hundred dollars in materials. To speed
up this tutorial, I’ve entered all the additional remaining labor hours and materials, calculated
the running totals on the different phase levels, and rolled them up all the way to
the main stage level, showing 487 labor hours and $174,000 in materials.
Adding Task Details to your WBS for creating the 100% Rule
If you’d like to display completion levels and start dates, as well as resources, simply
select the desired branch or stage, open the task and timeline info panel, enter the duration
that you’d like, any completion levels you’d like to display, and any resource names that
would complete that task. To display that information on the branch, simply right-click the desired branch, choose
show branch data, and turn on your specific data points. In this case, we will turn on
completion and we will also turn on the resource. If I’d like to display that information
on all branches, I can simply chose the view tab, show branch data, and turn these on for
all these branches at the same time. To speed up this example, I’ve updated all available
stage levels with completion levels, labor hours, and materials. As you can see, all
levels are rolled up to create your 100% rule; each phase has its specific completion level,
based on the sub-categories or sub-stages that are listed below. As stages and levels
are updated, the main phases will update, as well as the main project level. In this
case, we are 30% complete with the project. As soon as this stage is updated, for instance,
walls, I would choose task and timeline info, update the completion level to 100, that phase
will update, and accordingly, so will the remaining categories, increased to 32%
Viewing your WBS as a Gantt Chart One of the benefits for using MindView to
create your work breakdown structure is that with one click, you can convert it into a
fully-functional Gantt chart. Under the view tab, choose Gantt, and MindView will convert
your work breakdown structure into your Gantt chart. With your task name listed, durations,
start dates, end dates, predecessors, completion levels, priorities and resources. You can
easily create your dependencies by simply left-clicking and dragging to create your
predecessor or dependency levels. If you need to show your critical path, simply select
show critical path from the view section. If you’d like to seek further information
on the task, simply select the task, choose task information, and view all the relevant
information for that task, including estimated dates, constraint types, milestones, or a
further predecessor listing, where you can choose different types of predecessors, such
as finish-to-finish, finish-to-start, start-to-finish, start-to-start, or account for any associated
lag time.
Exporting your WBS to Microsoft Excel If you’d like a more consolidated view of
your work breakdown structure, you can export the file as a Microsoft Excel document. Simply
choose the MindView icon, select export, choose Microsoft Excel and create the advanced Excel
export. Simply choose the look and feel of your template, select the general tab, and
determine the elements you’d like to include. In this case we will include completion level
and resources, as we will also include labor hours and materials. I will simply choose
export, and MindView easily converts the WBS into a completed, formatted, Microsoft Excel
document, with our task names, total levels, resources, and any relative information that
I included in my work breakdown structure. If you need to make any changes to the Excel
document, feel free to update any information, save that file, and from within MindView,
simply choose to import from Microsoft Excel, and MindView will update with any changes
that were made in the Excel document.
Exporting your WBS to Microsoft Word for the WBS Dictionary
Need to create your WBS dictionary, or you want a more linear, written form of your document?
Choose the Word export. Simply select the MindView icon, choose export to, Microsoft
Word, choose the Advanced Word Export, select the template or layout style that you’d
like to use, under the general tab, determine what elements you’d like included, in this
case, completion and resources. Choose the export option, as you can see, MindView has
now converted your WBS into a linear Word document, with a fully interactive table of
contents, with each different section and category, and a relative page number. As I
control-click to that stage, we see the relative information with completion levels and resources.
As I scroll through the document, we can see each individual stage, as its own relative
category. As with the Excel export, any changes that are in the Word document. I can choose
to save that file and I can import that file back into MindView, by simply choosing the
MindView icon, choosing import, and choosing Microsoft Word.
Exporting your WBS into Microsoft Project (11:36)
Need to export your WBS into Microsoft Project? Select Export, choose Microsoft Project, and
MindView converts the project into a fully-functional Microsoft Project document, with the task
information, duration, predecessors, resources, and so. Any changes made in the Microsoft
Project file can be easily imported back into MindView, by choosing the MindView Icon, by
choosing the choosing import, and choosing Microsoft Project.