Setting Up the Organizational Breakdown Structure 97
Setting Up the Organizational
Breakdown Structure
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An organizational breakdown structure (OBS) |
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In this chapter |
is a hierarchical arrangement of a project’s |
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The OBS |
management structure. User access and |
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privileges to nodes and projects within the |
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Viewing an OBS |
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enterprise project structure (EPS) are |
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Setting Up an OBS |
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implemented via responsible managers, |
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Editing OBS Elements |
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defined in an organization-wide OBS |
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hierarchy. |
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An OBS is not the same as a resource pool. |
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While resources are assigned to activities, |
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OBS elements are associated with EPS nodes |
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and projects. The OBS element corresponding |
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to an EPS node is the project manager |
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responsible for all work included in that |
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branch of the hierarchy. In this way, an OBS |
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supports larger projects that involve several |
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project managers with different areas of |
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responsibility. |
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Read this chapter to learn how to set up an |
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OBS and associate its elements with the EPS. |
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Primavera - Project Management
98 Part 2: Structuring Projects
The OBS
Click the Display Options bar, then Filter By, Current EPS/ Projects to view only the OBS elements assigned to the open projects.
For more information about setting up security, see the
Administrator’s Guide.
The organizational breakdown structure (OBS) is a global hierarchy that represents the managers responsible for the projects in your organization. The OBS usually reflects the management structure of your organization, from top-level personnel down through the various levels constituting your business. You can associate the responsible managers with their areas of the EPS—either nodes or individual projects. When you associate a responsible manager with an EPS node, any projects you add to that branch of the EPS are assigned that manager element by default. The OBS hierarchy is also used to grant users specific access privileges to projects and the WBS levels within projects.
You may want to create your OBS to match each EPS node and project set up in the EPS. You can initially match OBS names to the EPS node and project names. For example, for the Corporate (Corporate IT) node, name the OBS element, Corporate IT Manager.
Assign users, by their login names, to the OBS elements to grant access to the corresponding EPS nodes or projects. The type of access granted to a user is determined by the project security profile assigned to the user.
Security profiles are set up on the Security Profiles dialog box (choose Admin, Security Profiles) and then assigned to users on the Users dialog box (choose Admin, Users).
Primavera - Project Management
Setting Up the Organizational Breakdown Structure 99
This user will have project manager rights for the OBS element to which he or she is assigned.
OBS nodes Creating an EPS node or a project in the Projects window automatically creates and associates an OBS node as the responsible manager.
Primavera - Project Management
100 Part 2: Structuring Projects
For more information about producing OBS and other standard reports, see Part 5, “Customizing Projects” on page 405.
The module automatically associates the OBS assigned to the EPS node in which the new project is added.
The OBS can mirror the EPS at the node and project level, or include additional OBS levels to accommodate your management organization. For example, you may want to specify team leaders as the responsible managers for the WBS levels of a project, and the project manager above the team leaders in the OBS as the responsible manager of the project. In this way, you can delineate appropriate access and security measures at various levels of the EPS while maintaining an OBS that accurately reflects your organization chart.
An OBS can have only one root element.
You can also produce reports based on your OBS; several standard OBS reports are included with the sample projects.
Primavera - Project Management