How to Create a Work Breakdown Structure That You can Use For Every Project

by admin · Published May 4, 2018 · Updated October 16, 2018

A work breakdown structure or WBS is a key project deliverable that organizes the team’s work into manageable sections. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) defines the work breakdown structure as a “deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team.” Basically the project is divided into low-level subtask units of work that will be scheduled, executed and controlled.

To be able to estimate the effort, schedule that is required to completing the project. The work breakdown structure is created using the WBS guidelines.

The work items are documented in a work breakdown structure that provides for efficient planning and tracking. Identify and describe the work elements in the project plan, any dependencies between them, and approximate level of effort of each.

The WBS should include the effort, schedule and cost for all the key process areas that contribute to the project as a whole. This is created as a part of Project Planning.

Guideline for a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The top level represents the final deliverable or project
Sub-deliverables contain work packages (Lowest level of item in a WBS) that are assigned to team members.
All elements of the work breakdown structure don’t need to be defined to the same level
The work package defines the work, duration, and costs for the tasks required to produce the sub-deliverable
Work packages should not exceed 10 days of duration
Work packages should be independent of other work packages in the work breakdown structure
Work packages are unique and should not be duplicated across the work breakdown structure

Below is the approach towards creating/developing a Work Breakdown Structure.

What To Do	How to do it
Determine strategy for developing a work breakdown structure (WBS)	Involve team members and senior members Bring experience from other projects Discover new or forgotten tasks
Identify the highest level components of work to be accomplished	Example of highest-level or first level components that logically group work. Product deliverables – such as Project Charter, Project Plan Life Cycle Phases – such as Analyze, Design, Build Functions – such as Create New Student, Update Grades
Break work process into small components	Under each high-level component, break the work into small components until each component is defined to a level of detail that allows accurate estimating for the time and cost required for its completion. *Note*: Create the work breakdown structure to the level of project detail that can be understood. If the project spans a long period of time, it is difficult to identify the detailed tasks for work a year or more in the future. In this case keep the tasks at a high level for the entire project and create a detailed work breakdown for work for the next phase or period of time
Make sure work has been broken down to the lowest level desired	Apply the following guidelines to ensure work has been broken down to its lowest level: One and only one staff resource can be assigned to a task (This is a general guideline. In certain instances there may be a team assigned to a task (such as a review team) or two people working side-by-side delivering one final product from a task). Each task has clearly identified results Each task is well enough defined and small enough so estimates of duration are credible