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What is WBS element?

1) What is WBS element?2) What is the Tcode to get to that screen?3) What is the need and pupose of WBS element?4) Do we happen to work on Functional module during our implementaion project?

5) In what scenario/situation we will be working on WBS?

WBS is nothing but Work Breakdown Structure. It is mainly used in Project System (PS)module. Tcode : CJ20N

For any project defined we must have atleast one WBS. Within this WBS we can havenetworks. Networks are nothing but the series of activities. Material are used to perform theactivities.

To explain in detail just consider one example:

Govt of india wants to have Roads to be build through out the india. So Project can be definedin sap as "Connectivity".

WBS can be roads within different states like Roads for Gujarat, Karnataka etc.. i.e. WBSGujarat, WBS Karnataka etc.

We can define different networks for these WBS like Road Between Ahmedabad to Surat orBetween Bangalore to Belgham.

For this network we can have many activities like Land selection, Land Preparation, RoadBuilding, Final finishing etc etc.

Hemal's example was a good example. Project Systems comes into play only when theindustry's business is based on projects like... Construction companies, Engineer to Orderscenarios. You may not see anyone using PS module for retail business. As Hemal explained inthat example, you have a main project which is broken down into WBS elements. You can usethe TC CJ20N to create the project and the WBS elements. Each WBS may have mutipleNetworks associated and each Network may have multiple Network Activities as explained inthe example by Hemal.

On the Sales Order, if your client is implementing PS module, you may have to attach the SalesOrder to the WBS element it belongs to. WBS element is nothing but a bucket where all theactivities belonging to that particular part of the project are captured. In the example, WBS

Gujurat will tell you how many Sales Orders were created for the Gujurat sector, howmuch wasspent on raw materials, what's the currect stock ([roject stock) available. How many ProductionOrders have been confirmed and howmany of them are getting confrmed in the future. Howmany invoices have been generated or how much revenue has been generated for thatparticular sector. How many deliveries have been made, what deliverables are still notaccomplished.

So as you can see, PS is the center stage for all the modules that are being implemented likeFI/CO, SD, MM, PP in this example. You can have cost centers and work centers defined. You

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can also have profit centers assigned at the plant level and get reports on varius selectioncriteria.

In a complete cycle of PS, like in reality, you initiate a project, you confirm/release theWBS/activities as per requirement, you execute the project and you close it.

One cannot initiate an activity unless it has been released by the project manager. Everything isaccountable here and every dime is counted and at the end you know howmuch did you spendor make on each sector (WBS). Dont get confused with the term sector here... I am using it justfor the explaination purposes. :)

In one typical example, the company I was working with until not too long ago, had Deliveriesfrom the Project (TC: CNS0). We never used VL01N. We used CNS0 to create a delivery andthen used VL02N for confirming the picking quantity for the already created delivery document.

I hope this should help you at least a bit. I'm not a PS consultant so I may not know a whole lotbut trying going to CJ20N and you will see a lot yourself.

PS concultants are one of the highest paid consultants. Their supply is less and so is thedemand. They are expected to understand real world business processes very well and they aregenerally the center stage of a project.