PM-04 · our practice ref · series-structure

Build the work breakdown and the schedule

Practice PM-04 in the Project Management group. The basis is series-structure, and the row asks for 3 pieces of evidence.

At a glance

Ref: PM-04
Process: Project Management
Basis: series-structure
Source: Public abstract, process list
Evidence: 3 items
Gaps: 2 common

Evidence to keep

Project ManagementThe work breakdown with owners and durations
Project ManagementThe schedule with dependencies and the critical path
Project ManagementThe baseline that later progress is measured against

Questions before you sign

What is the smallest unit we will track?
Which tasks are on the critical path?
What is the baseline date for each deliverable?

The practice, in our words

Break the work into tasks that a named person can do and finish, then sequence them into a schedule with dependencies and a critical path. The breakdown is the unit of control for the rest of the project.

What it means in a VSE

Keep the tasks small enough that progress can be seen weekly. A task that runs for six weeks without a checkpoint is not a task, it is a hope. Link each task to the deliverable it serves.

In a firm of 25 people or fewer, build the work breakdown and the schedule has to earn its time. The test for PM-04 is not whether the team understands it but whether the artefact exists at the end of the project. Shrink the meeting. Shrink the document. Keep the record.

How to evidence it

Attach the artefacts above to the Build the work breakdown and the schedule row with the project name, the owner and the date. The anchor for PM-04 is The work breakdown with owners and durations. A named person must produce it on request.

For PM-04, the reviewer will sample one live decision and ask for The schedule with dependencies and the critical path. No artefact, no evidence. A file that depends on one person's mailbox is not a file for build the work breakdown and the schedule.

What an assessor samples

An assessor reads the build the work breakdown and the schedule practice, asks for its evidence and tests one project against it. For PM-04, the useful sample is the most recent project that used the practice, not the best one. A reconstruction written for the visit is a finding for PM-04 if the practice cannot be shown to have happened when it mattered.

Common gaps

A schedule with no dependencies, so every task is urgent
Progress measured by percent complete with no definition

What changes from the 2019 report. For PM-04, project management is the spine the other practices hang from. The transition work is to make the plan, the progress reading and the closure exist as records rather than as habits.

Where the draft fits

The public abstract places build the work breakdown and the schedule inside one of the four processes the Intermediate profile covers. For PM-04, the draft clause numbering and wording are not public, so this page cites Public abstract, process list and does not quote the draft. The basis label for PM-04 says whether the practice is stated in the public record, named as a process in the series, or our reading.

Related practices

Source for this page: Public abstract, process list. Open the record and compare it with the PM-04 statement above. Retrieved 2026-10-22.