From the course: Project Management Foundations

Build a work breakdown structure

From the course: Project Management Foundations

Build a work breakdown structure

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- The best way to build a work breakdown structure, or WBS, is to start at the top level of summary tasks and work your way down. Work with your team to identify the WBS. You're less likely to forget work that needs to be done and the team is more likely to buy into the project. As a team, you identify the top few levels of summary tasks. Then you can have smaller groups break down the summary tasks into smaller chunks. At the end, everyone gets back together to review the results and correct any issues. If the full team isn't on board yet, work with your initial team to brainstorm the WBS. Then you can revise and add more detail to the WBS later as others join the project. Start by using the scope statement and deliverables to identify the top-level summary tasks. For example, the scope for the scheduling project includes redesign scheduling processes, a new scheduling system, documentation, and training. So you add summary tasks to cover all of those. Next, break down each of the summary tasks into smaller pieces. Intermediate deliverables come in handy for identifying lower-level summary tasks and work packages. For example, the scheduling project includes a deliverable for a signed contract with the system vendor. Let's add tasks to obtain proposals, select the vendor, negotiate terms, and sign the contract. You might wonder, "How much breakdown is enough?" Most project managers shoot for work packages that take between eight and 80 hours to complete. Work packages are the lowest-level tasks in the WBS and represent the work that needs to be done. Consider breaking down work to match the frequency of your status reports. That way, you have measurable progress and completed tasks for every status report. Here are some tests to determine whether you've broken work down to the right level. Time and cost are easy to estimate. Status is easy to measure. Task durations are shorter than your reporting periods. The detail is at the level you can and want to manage. Different parts of a project might require different levels of decomposition. One part of the project might include more work, so you break it down to three or four levels. If another part of the project is simpler, you might need only two levels. Don't worry about the initial organization of your WBS. You can rearrange it later as you learn more about the project. Building a WBS from the top down works well because you can use the scope statement and deliverables to get started. For practice, try building more of the scheduling projects WBS based on the project's scope and deliverables.

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