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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ... / Why are Project/SubPro...
Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ...
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Why are Project/SubProject/SubSubProject - & WBS, fundamentally different things?

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Posted on by bbb0777 158

Our old ERP: 3 levels of projects

Dynamics FO: 3 levels of projects plus 9 levels of WBS.

Why not just provide 12 levels of projects. What is the conceptual reason for the distinction?

i.e I see in our BYOD, we've got the project table over here, with a parent-child relationship going on - that could be expanded out to 12 levels.  Yet that's not what MS did, instead there's a completely separate Activity dimension going on with WBS.  This is a huge complication. So it must be there for a reason.  

But I don't conceptually understand. Is there any literature that explains it?

I have the same question (0)
  • André Arnaud de Calavon Profile Picture
    André Arnaud de Cal... 301,130 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

    Hi bbb0777,

    There is in fact no restriction on the number of sub-projects, but the restriction is caused by the length of the Project ID field. I do understand that someone proposed a solution in your organization to use 3 levels of projects and 9 levels of WBS? I don't know the background why someone proposed that. Why wasn't it considered to have just one project and all the levels managed in the WBS? As we don't know your processes and reporting requirements, it would be hard to make any suggestion. 12 levels is quite a lot. Can you tell why you need 12 levels?

  • bbb0777 Profile Picture
    bbb0777 158 on at

    >There is in fact no restriction on the number of sub-projects, but the restriction is caused by the length of the Project ID field. 

    What's the field length limit? 

    >Why wasn't it considered to have just one project and all the levels managed in the WBS?
    >Can you tell why you need 12 levels?"

    Sorry I don't know either - I'm fairly new to the organization.  This is all going live shortly however, so nothing will change.  That's interesting the idea of 1 level of project / many of WBS. 

      But say on a conceptual level: 

    • 12 levels of projects
    • 3 levels of project, 9 of WBS
    • 1 level of project, 11 of WBS <- new one

    What is the difference among those 3?  i.e. - why have separate projects and WBS?

    I said I'm fairly new, but no-one else at the organization seems to get it either.  

  • André Arnaud de Calavon Profile Picture
    André Arnaud de Cal... 301,130 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

    Hi bbb0777,

    The length of the project ID field is 20. If the sub levels need one character per level, it would be possible to manage all as sub projects.

    I would suggest to find out internally about the business requirements. Then there would be more information why you have 12 levels and probably you will also have more information then about e.g. reporting requirements.

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