3 Work Breakdown Structure Tips

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.

Project Management Tutorials

• 10 Truths for Successful Project Management

• Scope Triangle

• Critical Path

• The Mythical Man Month

• Defining the Project Scope

• Scope, Visions and Goals

• Using Project Goals to Filter Requirements

• Difference between a Business Case and Project Proposal?

• Return on Investment

• Requirements Specifications

Project Management Templates

Here are some Project Management templates you can get on our partner's site.

	The Change Management Kit provides the documentation required to control changes to the scope, deliverables and resources within the project. The Change Request template allows staff to raise a change request within the project.
	The Project Planning Kit provides you with all of the project management templates, documents and forms required to plan a project by helping you to schedule time, cost and resources.
	The Quality Management Kit includes a suite of templates used to assure and control the quality of deliverables within a project.
	Project Initiation Kit Start a new project by documenting a business case, undertaking a feasibility study, defining the project scope, recruiting key staff and locating them within a project office.
	Project Execution Kit Manage time, cost, quality, change, risks and issues during the execution of your project, as well as supplier procurement and customer acceptance.
	Project Closure Kit Helps close your project by handing over deliverables and documentation to the customer, terminating supplier contracts and releasing resources back to the business.