The Project Work Breakdown Structure is an outcome oriented analysis of the work involved in the project and defines the total scope of the project. It is a foundation document in project management because it provides the basis for planning and managing the project schedule, budget and requests for changes. The WBS is developed in the form of an inverted tree structure, organized by objectives; it looks like an organizational chart, which helps the project team visualize the whole project and all its main components.
The WBS is a hierarchy of all project work, it is a vertical breakdown, moving from the project goal to the tasks or subtasks. This decomposition process allows a good level of confidence in estimating the final project schedule and budget. It shows all the work that needs to be accomplished. The WBS contains 100% of all the work in the project.
At the top level is the project ultimate goal, the second level contains the project outcomes, the third level has the project outputs, and the fourth level with activities. Depending on the size and complexity of the project, the WBS may contain a fourth level that describe the tasks.
The size and complexity of a project will determine the number of levels a WBS needs. For some projects, additional levels may be included to represent intermediate objectives. Other projects may choose to structure the WBS by the geographical locations the project will work, or group the objectives by the communities participating in the project.
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is an important planning tool used to define a project in terms of its outputs while providing a method for breaking these deliverables into meaningful work units. The WBS allows the project manager to clearly describe the hierarchical nature of the work to be performed and establishes a foundation for other elements of the project planning documents including the project’s resource plan, budget, implementation plan, and project schedule.
With the WBS, the project manager will be able to describe the outcomes of a project in a way that is clear to the project team, while at the same time capturing the order and sequence of the work necessary to produce those outputs. The WBS provides a means for carefully detailing the outputs of the project and facilitates the identification of specific the work elements, and groupings required to deliver each element.
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FAQs
Breaking work into smaller tasks is a common productivity technique used to make the work more manageable and approachable. For projects, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the tool that utilizes this technique and is one of the most important project management documents.
What is a work breakdown structure explain? ›
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a project management system that breaks projects into smaller, more manageable components or tasks. It is a visual tool that breaks down the entire project to make it easier to plan, organize, and track progress.
What is the WBS? ›
A work-breakdown structure (WBS) in project management and systems engineering is a deliverable-oriented breakdown of a project into smaller components. A work breakdown structure is a key project management element that organizes the team's work into manageable sections.
Why is WBS important? ›
What Is the Importance of a Work Breakdown Structure in Project Management? A solid work breakdown structure (WBS) is a game-changer in project management, setting the foundation for success. It meticulously breaks down the project into manageable chunks, ensuring clarity, focus, and team alignment.
What are the 5 levels of WBS? ›
Each of those five project phases—initiation, planning, execution, control and closeout, also act as control accounts and branch off the main deliverable at the top. Once decided, they are then broken down into a series of deliverables.
What is the work breakdown structure WBS typically used for? ›
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a tool that can be used for projects, programs, and even initiatives to understand the work that has to be done to successfully produce a deliverable(s). The benefits of creating a WBS include: it defines and organizes the work required.
Which best describes a work breakdown structure? ›
The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines WBS as "a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables."
What is the format of a WBS? ›
A work breakdown structure can be formatted in various ways, including as an outline (basically, a numbered list), a hierarchical table, or a tree diagram. Regardless of format, a WBS will typically include outline numbering to represent the sequential order of each level and activity.
What is the work breakdown structure relationship? ›
A deliverable-based WBS visualizes the relationship between the project deliverables (e.g., a product or service) and the scope of the work. It breaks down the project scope into control accounts and divides it into project work packages and tasks.
What does WBS involves? ›
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a project management tool that takes a step-by-step approach to complete large projects with several moving pieces. By breaking down the project into smaller components, a WBS can integrate scope, cost and deliverables into a single tool.
For example, if you're creating a work breakdown structure for manufacturing a car, you'll include items such as “car body” (a deliverable), not “welding steel” (an activity). Before we dive further into the benefits and impact of a WBS, there are a few additional definitions you should know.
What is the basic structure of the WBS? ›
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): a product-oriented “family tree” of project components that organizes and defines the total scope of the project. Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of a project component.
When should WBS be used? ›
Once the project scope is available, the WBS should be the first deliverable. With the WBS defined, it's then possible to scope out other resources, including human resources, particular skill sets, material resources (such as equipment and space), and facilities.
What is the purpose of the WBS element? ›
A WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) element is a cost objective in SAP that collects expenses and revenues related to sponsored projects. WBS elements are both research and fund accounts. Projects often include several WBS elements forming a WBS hierarchy.
What is the WBS work breakdown structure dictionary? ›
A document that provides detailed information about deliverables, activity and scheduling of each component in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS Dictionary describes each component of the WBS with milestones, deliverables, activities, scope, and sometimes dates, resources, costs, quality.
What is the organizational breakdown structure and WBS? ›
The WBS is utilized at the beginning of the project to define scope, identify cost centers and is the starting point to developing project plans/Gantt charts. The Organization Breakdown Structure groups together similar project activities or “work packages” and relates them to the organization's structure.
What is the decomposition of the WBS? ›
The WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.
The Project Work Breakdown Structure is an outcome oriented analysis of the work involved in the project and defines the total scope of the project. It is a foundation document in project management because it provides the basis for planning and managing the project schedule, budget and requests for changes. The WBS is developed in the form of an inverted tree structure, organized by objectives; it looks like an organizational chart, which helps the project team visualize the whole project and all its main components.