Define Activities breaks the WBS work packages into the individual activities that must be performed to produce them. It produces the activity list, activity attributes, and the milestone list — the building blocks the rest of schedule planning sequences, estimates, and assembles.
On projects using rolling wave planning, near-term work is decomposed in detail while later work stays at a higher level until it is closer. Defining activities (the work) separately from deliverables (the WBS) keeps the schedule actionable.
Common pitfalls. Confusing activities with deliverables; missing activities that later appear as surprise work; and decomposing far-future work in detail that will only change.
Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs
Inputs
- Project management plan
- Enterprise environmental factors
- Organizational process assets
Tools & Techniques
- Expert judgment
- Decomposition
- Rolling wave planning
- Meetings
Outputs
- Activity list
- Activity attributes
- Milestone list
- Change requests
- Project management plan updates
How This Process Connects
Every process hands artifacts to other processes. Follow the flow of this one:
Where its inputs come from
- Develop Project Management Planproduces: Project management plan
Where its outputs go
- Perform Integrated Change Controluses: Change requests
More in Project Schedule Management
In the Domains & Principles View
The PMBOK® Guide frames this work through performance domains and principles:
In the Eighth Edition
This process describes the framework as set out in the Sixth and Seventh Editions. The Eighth Edition reorganized it into 6 principles, 7 performance domains and 40 processes.