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 WBS should be activity-oriented or
deliverable-oriented is a subject of much discussion. There
are also various approaches to building the WBS for a project (see e.g. How to Build
a Work Breakdown Structure below). Project management software, when used properly,
can be very helpful in developing a WBS, although in early stages of WBS 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 WBS should generally not exceed 100-200
terminal elements (if more terminal elements seem to be required, use subprojects). The
WBS should be up to 3-4 levels deep. Each level should be 5-9 elements broad. These
suggestions derive from the following facts:
- short-term memory capacity is limited to 5-9 items.
- 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.
- 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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