A work breakdown structure (WBS), also known by its English name Work Breakdown Structure or WBS, is a fundamental tool that consists of the hierarchical, deliverable-oriented decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team, to meet the team's objectives and create the required deliverables, where each descending level of the WBS represents a definition with increased detail of the project work.
The purpose of a WBS is to organize and define the total approved scope of the project as stated in the current documentation. Its hierarchical form allows easy identification of the final elements, called "Work Packages". This is an exhaustive element in terms of the scope of the project, and serves as a basis for project planning. All project work must be traceable to one or more WBS entries.
How to build a WBS
A WBS is a simple, organized presentation of the work required to complete the project, and there are many ways to organize the presentation of this work. However, for this tool to be truly useful, it must be taken into account that its fundamental characteristic is to be oriented towards the deliverables or "work products" that are the result of the work and not the effort itself. In this way, to build a WBS, you must be clear about the scope of the work to be executed at the time of preparing the breakdown, which must be documented in the "Project Scope Statement." The breakdown or decomposition process must be progressive and always represent the complete scope, which means that to generate the WBS one must proceed from the general to the particular, and each level must be the result of the integration of the next level. Importantly, the WBS documents the scope of the project, not its execution plan.
Detail level
There are theoretical specifications about the height or width of a WBS. The practical context determines whether the WBS is too general or too detailed. Project management is not so much about focusing on doing the work as it is about monitoring it, in such a way that the planned results are ensured.
That is why a good tip for creating a WBS is that it is detailed enough so that a part of the work can be assigned to a third party, and that its status is adequately monitored. Therefore, a good practical measure of the depth that the WBS should reach is to ask whether the level reached allows the time and cost variables to be clearly defined. If they cannot yet be determined at the current level, they should be subdivided further. This assigned work could become a new junior WBS of the previous one.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Introduction
A work breakdown structure (WBS), also known by its English name Work Breakdown Structure or WBS, is a fundamental tool that consists of the hierarchical, deliverable-oriented decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team, to meet the team's objectives and create the required deliverables, where each descending level of the WBS represents a definition with increased detail of the project work.
The purpose of a WBS is to organize and define the total approved scope of the project as stated in the current documentation. Its hierarchical form allows easy identification of the final elements, called "Work Packages". This is an exhaustive element in terms of the scope of the project, and serves as a basis for project planning. All project work must be traceable to one or more WBS entries.
How to build a WBS
A WBS is a simple, organized presentation of the work required to complete the project, and there are many ways to organize the presentation of this work. However, for this tool to be truly useful, it must be taken into account that its fundamental characteristic is to be oriented towards the deliverables or "work products" that are the result of the work and not the effort itself. In this way, to build a WBS, you must be clear about the scope of the work to be executed at the time of preparing the breakdown, which must be documented in the "Project Scope Statement." The breakdown or decomposition process must be progressive and always represent the complete scope, which means that to generate the WBS one must proceed from the general to the particular, and each level must be the result of the integration of the next level. Importantly, the WBS documents the scope of the project, not its execution plan.
Detail level
There are theoretical specifications about the height or width of a WBS. The practical context determines whether the WBS is too general or too detailed. Project management is not so much about focusing on doing the work as it is about monitoring it, in such a way that the planned results are ensured.
Generally, a WBS should have no more than 100 or 200 terminal elements (if more appear to be required, subprojects should be used). A WBS should be 3 or 4 levels deep, and each level should be 5 to 9 elements wide. These suggestions are derived from the following facts:.
It is convenient and quite common to use, in medium and large projects, a hierarchical code system, assigning a code to each WBS entry. For example, an input at the highest level may have a code such as 1, 2, or 3, and inputs below input 1 may have codes such as 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.
100% rule
An important design principle for work breakdown structures is called the 100% rule. It is defined as follows:
The 100% rule states that the WBS includes 100% of the work defined by the project scope, and captures all results - internal, external and intermediate - in terms of the work to be completed, including project management. The 100% rule is one of the most important principles guiding the development, decomposition, and evaluation of EDT.
The rule applies to all levels within the hierarchy: the sum of the work at the "child" level must equal 100% of the work represented by the "parent" and the WBS must not include any work that falls outside the actual scope, that is, it cannot include more than 100% of the work. It is important to remember that the 100% rule also applies to activity level. The work represented by the activities in each work package must total 100% of the work necessary to complete the work package.
Tools to develop WBS
Project management software can be very useful in developing a WBS, although in the early stages of creating a WBS, sticking small notes (such as PostIt) is very useful because of its flexibility. It is much easier for a team to work together using these notes on a large empty wall than to huddle in front of a computer screen and a single keyboard, although a projector connected to this computer would solve this problem and save time capturing the small notes.
Another option is the use of collaborative work software through which the different actors (team members or guests) make their contributions in a common space designated for this. The great usefulness of this methodology lies in the fact that such contributions may have an asynchronous origin and geographic dispersion"), however, they will be integrated into a single platform that will contain them so that they can be viewed in context and keeping a detailed record of their evolution.
WBS Dictionary – Everything Project Managers Should Know.
That is why a good tip for creating a WBS is that it is detailed enough so that a part of the work can be assigned to a third party, and that its status is adequately monitored. Therefore, a good practical measure of the depth that the WBS should reach is to ask whether the level reached allows the time and cost variables to be clearly defined. If they cannot yet be determined at the current level, they should be subdivided further. This assigned work could become a new junior WBS of the previous one.
Generally, a WBS should have no more than 100 or 200 terminal elements (if more appear to be required, subprojects should be used). A WBS should be 3 or 4 levels deep, and each level should be 5 to 9 elements wide. These suggestions are derived from the following facts:.
It is convenient and quite common to use, in medium and large projects, a hierarchical code system, assigning a code to each WBS entry. For example, an input at the highest level may have a code such as 1, 2, or 3, and inputs below input 1 may have codes such as 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.
100% rule
An important design principle for work breakdown structures is called the 100% rule. It is defined as follows:
The 100% rule states that the WBS includes 100% of the work defined by the project scope, and captures all results - internal, external and intermediate - in terms of the work to be completed, including project management. The 100% rule is one of the most important principles guiding the development, decomposition, and evaluation of EDT.
The rule applies to all levels within the hierarchy: the sum of the work at the "child" level must equal 100% of the work represented by the "parent" and the WBS must not include any work that falls outside the actual scope, that is, it cannot include more than 100% of the work. It is important to remember that the 100% rule also applies to activity level. The work represented by the activities in each work package must total 100% of the work necessary to complete the work package.
Tools to develop WBS
Project management software can be very useful in developing a WBS, although in the early stages of creating a WBS, sticking small notes (such as PostIt) is very useful because of its flexibility. It is much easier for a team to work together using these notes on a large empty wall than to huddle in front of a computer screen and a single keyboard, although a projector connected to this computer would solve this problem and save time capturing the small notes.
Another option is the use of collaborative work software through which the different actors (team members or guests) make their contributions in a common space designated for this. The great usefulness of this methodology lies in the fact that such contributions may have an asynchronous origin and geographic dispersion"), however, they will be integrated into a single platform that will contain them so that they can be viewed in context and keeping a detailed record of their evolution.