Work Breakdown Structure

In project management, a work breakdown structure (WBS) is an exhaustive, hierarchical (from general to specific) tree structure of deliverables and tasks that need to be performed to complete a project.

The purpose of a Work Breakdown Structure is to identify terminal elements (the actual items to be done in a project). Therefore, the Work Breakdown Structure serves as the basis for much of project planning.

How to Build a Work Breakdown Structure

Work breakdown structure is a very common project management tool. Many United States government statements of work require work breakdown structures.

Whether the Work Breakdown Structure should be activity-oriented or deliverable-oriented is a subject of much discussion. There are also various approaches to building the Work Breakdown Structure for a project.

Project management software, when used properly, can be very helpful in developing a Work Breakdown Structure, although in early stages of Work Breakdown Structure development, plain sticky notes are the best tool (especially in teams).

An example of a work breakdown for painting a room (activity-oriented) is, to state the obvious:

• Prepare materials
  • Buy paint
  • Buy a ladder
  • Buy brushes/rollers
  • Buy wallpaper remover
• Prepare room
  • Remove old wallpaper
  • Remove detachable decorations
  • Cover floor with old newspapers
  • Cover electrical outlets/switches with tape
  • Cover furniture with sheets
• Paint the room
• Clean up the room
  • Dispose or store left over paint
  • Clean brushes/rollers
  • Dispose of old newspapers
  • Remove covers

The size of the Work Breakdown Structure should generally not exceed 100-200 terminal elements (if more terminal elements seem to be required, use subprojects).

The Work Breakdown Structure should be up to 3-4 levels deep. Each level should be 5-9 elements broad. These suggestions derive from the following facts:

1. short-term memory capacity is limited to 5-9 items.
2. having fixed time to plan a project, the more terminal elements there are, the less time there is to pay attention to any single one of them. Consequently, the estimates are less thought-through.
3. the more terminal elements there are the more there are potential dependencies among them (see fact 2 above for consequences).

Example of a work breakdown structure

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Project Management

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