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The Work Breakdown Structure is used for project control and management purposes such as planning, scheduling, reporting, cost control, etc. It is applicable to all projects among all industries.
Basically, the Work Breakdown Structure is a subdivision of the project’s scope of work as a hierarchical structure. This concept falls within the Project Scope Management. Major project deliverables are represented at the upper levels and detailed project management processes are represented at the lower levels of WBS.
What is the Work Breakdown Structure ?
The Work Breakdown Structure is a tool used for project management which divides the project into manageable and minor components. The project deliverables are divided into smaller work packages as hierarchical groups.
Working with smaller work packages provides many benefits while creating and reporting a project schedule.
- You can estimate the project’s cost by estimating the costs of each work packages.
- You can schedule the overall project by analyzing each work package
- You can create a monitoring and controlling system for the overall project relying on the work packages.
Because of these reasons, the Work Breakdown Structure should be created at the planning stage after obtaining all the project’s and the stakeholder’s requirements.
Why Should You Use ?
Assume that you are a project manager of a dam construction project. After getting the approval of the project charter, you started to list the activities to be performed. Is this an efficient way to create a project schedule and track the performance without grouping the activities under different levels? Obviously, a list itself is not sufficient to clearly break down the project into smaller components. Because when you report the project’s performance to the top level, you can not demonstrate the project’s deliverables in a hierarchical decomposition. Therefore, using a WBS provides a clear view of your project’s scope of work.
In a work schedule, activities are grouped under certain WBS levels. For example in a construction project schedule, electrical cabling activities are grouped under electrical WBS levels, piping activities are grouped under mechanical WBS levels. This improves the quality of scheduling, tracking and reporting.
Keep in mind that the WBS describes deliverables and activity groups not the activities in detail.
How to Create a Work Breakdown Structure ?
Let’s discuss how to create a work breakdown structure. According to the PMBOK Guide, the Work Breakdown Structure creation process should involve the project manager, project team, project management team, and stakeholders.
The project scope of work (scope statement), Organizational Process Assets and requirement documentation are the essential inputs for Work Breakdown Structure creation process.
Basically, the WBS is an important tool for modern project management methodologies. Once it is created for a current project, it can be used for future projects which have the same scope and deliverables. If there is a change in the scope or the client asks for a scope change then the WBS should be changed.
Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary
Before to take a look at the Work Breakdown Example, let’s discuss the Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary. A WBS dictionary is created based on the WBS of the project. It provides detailed information related to each WBS component. A WBS dictionary involves brief information of the scope of work, start and finish dates, resources, responsible manager (or personnel), costs and technical information for each WBS element. It provides a quick view of the project’s deliverables.
A WBS Dictionary is required because WBS itself is not capable to provide enough information for the scope of work. It is a good idea to keep the WBS and WBS dictionary up to date in the same document so that the stakeholders and the project team can reach the updated project information easily.
Note that the WBS Dictionary concept is important for the PMP Certification Exam.
Work Breakdown Structure Example for Construction
For better understanding, let’s analyze a Work Breakdown Structure example for a construction project.
This Work Breakdown Structure example shows that all the elements are listed under WBS levels. The lowest levels of WBS shows the project deliverables. Tasks and activities will be grouped under these lowest levels. Level 1 is the overall project. Level 2 is the main phases of the project. Level 3 shows the major deliverables and level 4 is the minor deliverables. Keep in mind that activities are not the components of WBS.
Victor Z Young is a Civil Engineer with 35 years of experience working alongside the executive team of various construction companies. Victor specializes in construction insurance, delay analysis, performance analysis and engineering. He holds a Doctor of Project Management from Northwestern University.
