The following discussion will examine the current trends and practice regarding work breakdown structures. The pmbok guide suggests a work package be no less than eight hours but no more than eighty hours. All about work breakdown structures wbs smartsheet. Have you encountered work breakdown structures and wondered how they can help in your project management efforts. If you fail to identify a major part of your projects work, you wont have the chance to detail it. May 26, 20 a wbs is to a project manager what a recipe is to a chef. Unfortunately, the business pressures driving projects have often prevented project managers from developing a comprehensive wbs.
P a g e 3 work breakdown structures a work breakdown structure is a deliverableoriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. Mar 18, 2011 how to make relationships between deliverables and project work. Introduction after more than fifteen years of consulting on different kinds of projects, i propose a new vision of work breakdown structure wbs. The development of work breakdown structure involves subdividing the major project activities or subactivities into smaller, more manageable activities until the activities are defined in sufficient detail to support the management and development of project works. Project managers use wbs to break a project into manageable sections and tasks. Wbs is deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of total scope of work. The work breakdown structure is an hierarchical breakdown of all work required to complete a project. The building blocks of a schedule start with a work breakdown structure wbs. We hope that this article has helped you better understand the work breakdown structure s purpose, process, and common pitfalls. Mar 15, 2018 a work breakdown structure wbs is a hierarchical structure of things that the project will make or outcomes that it will deliver this one is far better. Project managers have long relied on work breakdown structures wbs to help them effectively and efficiently plan and implement projects. It should cover all project scope and be broken down into unique and manageable parts that correspond to key deliverables, phases of work, or milestones.
The items at the lowest level of a branch are known as work packages. Check the capital project delivery website to ensure this is the current version. A work breakdown structure template is a crucial document which helps to break down your work into small pieces for easily determining its procedure of completion. Pdf the work breakdown structure in software project. The graphical nature of the wbs can help a project manager predict outcomes based on various scenarios, which can ensure that optimum decisions.
In order to produce these deliverables, work must be performed. Usually this process is about creating a detailed decomposition of work planned for completion into smaller, more manageable and measurable components the pmbok guide. Developing work breakdown structure wbs is the way to do this. Work breakdown structure wbs is a tool to identify what must be done in order to accomplish project objectives. But to confront the challenges of working in todays volatile economic environment, project managers are increasingly using. It takes each output and shows in sequence, from general to specific, all the activities and tasks required for its production. A wbs is not a todo list consisting of everything that needs to be done on the project.
Steps for developing a work breakdown structure your business. Figure 1below depicts a sample work breakdown structure with three levels defined. A work breakdown structure wbs is a chart in which the critical work elements, called tasks, of a project are illustrated to portray their relationships to each other and to the project as a whole. A work breakdown structure is a hierarchical breakdown of work, such as activities, tasks, and steps, defining a process. About this task before creating a work breakdown structure, be sure that the configuration selected in the tool bar is the same as the configuration selected as the default configuration for your process. The wbs is an extremely valuable tool to the project management methodology. In your project you will want to develop them down to a much more detailed level using the 8 to 80 rule where the wbs is broken down to where a work package contains between 8 and 80 hours of work to complete. Work breakdown structure rev e, june 2003 work breakdown structure a project work breakdown structure wbs is a deliverable or product oriented grouping of project work elements shown in graph ical display to organize and subdivide the total work scope of a project. It is the connecting point for work and cost estimates, schedule information, actual work effortcost expenditures, and accountability. Applying work breakdown structure to project lifecycle. A wbs is arranged in a hierarchy and constructed to allow for clear and logical groupings, either by activities or deliverables. Many people have mistaken wbs as a list of tasks, a schedule or an organization chart. This document is a great source of analyzing the way of work through different parts of project.
The work breakdown structure wbs has long served as a valuable tool in helping project managers plan deliverables and detail project scope. Think of the wbs as a visual model of the project that identifies each piece of the scope of work and how its delivered to the customer. Work breakdown structure element dictionary concept development procedures are subject to change without notice. A work breakdown structure in every project management and system engineering is an effective tool that is used for defining and group the discrete elements of work in any project so that it can help the organization, build it in some way and boost the work scope of the whole project. Provides approach for decomposing the work into measurable units, which. The wbs serves to organize and define the total scope of the project. A work breakdown structure wbs is a visual tool for defining and tracking a project deliverable and all the small components needed to create it.
The wbs was originally developed by the us department of defense, which mandated their use across the dod. Guidelines for developing work breakdown structure. The wbs is a hierarchical reflection of all the work in the project in terms of deliverables. Large or complex deliverables are broken down into smaller components. Determine your strategy for developing a work breakdown structure wbs consider meeting with project team members and others with expertise in similar projects to develop the wbs. A work breakdown structure in every project management and system engineering is an effective tool that is used for defining and group the discrete elements of work in any project so that it can help the organization, build. The importance of defining a projects duration becomes something you and your team members can see, feel, and touch if you utilize a wbs in the projects lifecycle. Work breakdown structures in large projects how detailed should a wbs be. Work breakdown structure wbs represents a vital element of scope management. As such the work breakdown structure wbs also defines the scope of work of the project.
This course provides essential work breakdown structure training. A work breakdown structure wbs is a hierarchical structure of things that the project will make or outcomes that it will deliver this one is far better. Work breakdown structure relativistic heavy ion collider. Students shall work with their opening pos statement, or project charter, and use this document as a basis to begin developing and creating a work breakdown structure, or wbs. Work breakdown structure is a hierarchical breakdown of the work to be done in the project. Work breakdown structure wbs purpose, process and pitfalls. Graphically, think of it as a tree structure in which the elements at a lower level consist of all the activities needed to complete the higher level. Defining a work breakdown structure a work breakdown structure wbs is defined as a hierarchy of tasks that are representative of the real work flow of a construction project. The wbs also can involve combinations of these formats, for example, process and geography or.
Creating a work breakdown structure wbs helps you be both comprehensive and specific when managing a project. Differentiate the five approaches for creating work breakdown structures wbs the work breakdown structure wbs is a chart. A wbs is to a project manager what a recipe is to a chef. Work breakdown structures a work breakdown structure is a deliverableoriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.
Thinking in detail is critical when planning your project, but you also need to consider the big picture. Applying the work breakdown structure to the project. How to make relationships between deliverables and project work. Today, work breakdown structures are widely used for projects of all types, both business and personal. Aouad3 1 school of the built environment, heriot watt university, uk. Just like a good recipe it sets out the required ingredients, equipment, methods, timing and performance indicators. Work breakdown structure a work breakdown structure wbs is a decomposition of all the work necessary to complete a project. It is a product oriented structure, not an organizational structure. To develop and maintain a wbs, you must have a clear understanding of the projects. Avoiding the all important work breakdown structure can be costly. You can also look max widemans glossary for few other definitions of work breakdown structure. The work breakdown structure wbs is one of the most important tools you can use when managing a project.
Doe office of management, budget and evaluation work breakdown structure project management practices guide, revision e dated june 2003. A typical approach in developing a wbs is to start at the highest level, with the product of the project. Top tips for developing a work breakdown structure wbs. How to develop a work breakdown structure by brainstorming how you develop youre work breakdown schedule wbs for a project youre managing depends on how familiar you and your team are with your project, whether similar projects have been successfully performed in the past, and how many new methods and approaches youll use. Developing and elaborating effective work breakdown structures. Jul 03, 2014 work breakdown structure is a tool to represent project and product scope. The goal is to use the wbs to achieve the project objectives and facilitate efficient management so as to best monitor the project in terms of budget and on schedule. A fourstep guide to the work breakdown structure smart projex. The work breakdown structure wbs is a vehicle for breaking an engineering project down into subproject, tasks, subtasks, work packages, and so on.
Before you further, you should read some of my other. This paper examines the dimensions that are involved in developing a wbs that can help project teams successfully realize their project goals. With a work breakdown structure, you can stay focused on what you need to accomplish. A work breakdown structure, commonly abbreviated wbs, is a key project deliverable that is utilized to organize a project teams work and responsibilities into compact sections that. In reality, wbs is a simple and easy visual breakdown of deliverables for product, result, or service. Think of the wbs as a visual model of the project that identifies each piece of the scope of. Since the beginning of my career, the tree structures have always been in the heart of my thoughts.
Creating the work breakdown structure by kim colenso, managing principal, artemis management systems the work breakdown structure wbs is the foundation for project planning and control. The work breakdown structure visually defines the scope into manageable chunks that a project team can understand, as each level of the work breakdown structure provides further definition and detail. It can help the project manager predict outcomes based on various scenarios. A wbs creates links between the deliverables and their numerous components at all possible levels of project work. The things we have to do to produce the product of the project. What is wbs work breakdown structure in project management.
Plan development task identification and work breakdown. As the discipline has matured, project professionals have expanded and matured the wbs concept. A work breakdown structure defines all the things a project needs to accomplish, organized into multiple levels, and displayed graphically. Developing the work breakdown structure means defining the relationships between the project goals, deliverables and scope. The work breakdown structure is a hierarchical framework for organizing and ordering the activities that make up the entire project scope. It is simply a chart or outline of your projects deliverables. Using wbs, project objectives can be decomposed into many smaller tasks required to achieve the objectives. The importance of the wbs experienced project managers know there are many things that can go wrong in projects. It sets the foundation for the rest of the project planning.
A work breakdown structure wbs is a project management tool designed to capture project tasks in a visual, organized manner. Determining work and tasks sizes work breakdown structure wbs different approaches for developing a wbs notations for work breakdown structures heuristics and examples starting with templates how to identify work what do we do with risky tasks. A work breakdown structure, commonly abbreviated wbs, is a key project deliverable that is utilized to organize a project teams work and responsibilities into compact sections that are more manageable. Developing the work breakdown structure work breakdown structure format the work breakdown structure is usually organized so that it emphasizes the product structure, but sometimes it is organized in terms of process structure life cycle or geography. Work breakdown structure wbs a structured definition of the work. It helps in obtaining awareness about manageable sections for developing a precise.