How to Organize a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) are very useful in helping us to plan and control projects. They essentially provide a convenient way of describing the work which needs to be done within a project. They are complete, in that once everything in the WBS has been done then the project can be said to be complete. Thus, anything not on the WBS is considered out of scope.

Work Breakdown Structures look very much like a family tree – they are simply a hierarchy showing the subdivision of the components which need to be done to deliver the project. The aim with the WBS in a project context is to start at the top level and decompose just enough until we’re able to plan the project – we don’t want to go into too much detail.

There are 4 distinct methods to organise a WBS:

• Method 1 – Deliverables: Here we start with the major deliverable at the top level of the WBS hierarchy and decompose from there
• Method 2 – Subprojects done outside the team: at the top level we have the project as before but below that we have all the projects being run by subcontractors
• Method 3 – Phases: we have the project name at the top level but below that we list all the various project phases
• Method 4 – Combination: this is when we use a combination of methods 1, 2, and 3 described above.

The real advantage of work breakdown structures is that they enable us to breakdown and understand complex deliverables be they objects or projects. To do this use one of the methods described above.

Source by Arval Deco

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