Creating a Work Breakdown Structure: How to use one of the most important planning tools

Creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) is one of the most important tasks in project man­age­ment. Re­gard­less of the project man­age­ment standard you follow, the WBS is referred to as a central tool in each one. It forms the basis for your project’s detail planning, occupying a key role when it comes to preparing the concrete im­ple­men­ta­tion of the project.

But what is the best way to subdivide the work breakdown structure? When is the most ideal time to create it? And what should one not expect from it? We address these questions and others below.

The work breakdown structure divides a project into com­po­nents that are arranged hi­er­ar­chi­cal­ly. The ordering takes place according to various prin­ci­ples from which one can decide. In general, the WBS serves the purpose of dis­play­ing all the tasks that need to be closed at the suc­cess­ful con­clu­sion of a specific project.

Not to be confused with the WSB are other man­age­ment tools, the project schedule and the project man­age­ment plan:

• Project schedule: This arranges all work projects and tasks to be completed within a chrono­log­i­cal framework – with start and end dates.
• Project Plan/Project man­age­ment plan: This is not a plan in the con­ven­tion­al sense, but instead a col­lec­tion of the most important project plans. It contains, among other items, the work breakdown structure, the cost and resource plans as well as the project schedule.

Creating a work breakdown structure is a standard process that in a number of ways has a practical use:

1. Clarity with respect to the scope of the work: The bigger the project, the more difficult it is to maintain an overview of which tasks must be completed and which work stages are related. The WSB reduces the com­plex­i­ty, as it divides the whole project into small substeps and prepares the visuals ac­cord­ing­ly.
2. Increased ef­fi­cien­cy: On the other hand, clarity with respect to project scope is required for efficient project im­ple­men­ta­tion. The WSB not only ensures that all the necessary steps are heeded, but also that a realistic schedule is made.
3. Ori­en­ta­tion function: While the project is ongoing, the WSB provides every project par­tic­i­pant with an overview of the current project status and at which point the par­tic­u­lar activity is in­te­grat­ed. The plan provides guidance and ensures that ap­pro­pri­ate actions are taken.
4. Basis for com­mu­ni­ca­tion: Every project requires a lot of co­or­di­na­tion between the different project partners. Here, a compact yet still com­pre­hen­sive display such as the WBS can support com­mu­ni­ca­tion. It creates trans­paren­cy, helps to avoid mis­un­der­stand­ings and en­cour­ages effective dis­cus­sions.
5. Basis for further planning: Not least is the work breakdown structure required for iden­ti­fy­ing if ad­di­tion­al detailed plans are needed. For this reason, it reduces the risk of cost ex­plo­sions and ad­di­tion­al expenses that haven’t been planned for.

Now, how can you take a very practical approach to creating a work breakdown structure? To do this, there are es­sen­tial­ly three models:

With the top-down approach, you divide the project – starting in each case at the final outcome – into more and more specific sub­pro­jects, that you in turn split up into work packages. This is most ideal if you are familiar with the content of a project or already have ac­cu­mu­lat­ed ex­pe­ri­ence with similar projects.

With the bottom-up approach you proceed in the opposite planning direction, by beginning at the bottom step. You compile all the tasks that come to mind, and, in a second step, combine them into work packages that you then arrange into sub­pro­jects. This is es­pe­cial­ly practical when you are breaking new ground with a project.

The yo-yo approach is a com­bi­na­tion of both the above-mentioned tech­niques. Through­out it, you proceed in al­ter­nat­ing steps. First you compile the tasks, then you note the sub­pro­jects and assign them the present tasks, and then, lastly, compile ad­di­tion­al to-dos. Thus, by jumping back and forth between bottom-up and top-down, you utilize the ad­van­tages of both methods. In the process, you must make sure that you don’t repeat any item or forget anything.

A frequent question that is often posed in con­nec­tion with work breakdown struc­tures is that of the struc­tur­ing system to be utilized: Should the sub­pro­jects indicate project phases, products or ac­tiv­i­ties? We can dif­fer­en­ti­ate these types of struc­tur­ing ac­cord­ing­ly:

• Time-oriented: The project is divided into separate phases that are then reflected in the subtasks.
• Object-oriented: The project object and/or product is sub­di­vid­ed into separate com­po­nents that can then be assigned tasks.
• Function-oriented: The project is divided according to the different areas of activity that are involved in its execution.

In practice, all three of the indicated prin­ci­ples are used, often in com­bi­na­tion as well. In doing so, you should take care to only apply one ordering principle per breakdown level.

So that you’ll always be able to assign resources, expenses and changes to a specific work package later on, these are usually provided with a code within the work breakdown structure. The coding reflects its position within the project hierarchy.

There are three different types of coding:

• Al­pha­bet­ic coding: The use of letters (e.g. A, AA, AB)
• Numeric coding: The use of numbers (e.g. 1, 1.1, 1.1.2)
• Al­phanu­mer­ic coding: Com­bi­na­tion of numbers and letters (e.g. A, A1, A.1.1)

Which coding type you choose remains up to you. For our example, we decided to use numeric coding.

Here you can download a work breakdown structure template for MS Pow­er­Point.

With middle-sized and larger projects, it is advisable that you use special project man­age­ment software that can also create the WBS. For this reason, you should generally try to keep your project’s work breakdown structure un­clut­tered and not divided up into more than 50 in­di­vid­ual com­po­nents. However, even at this magnitude, nav­i­ga­tion in non-spe­cial­ized programs is often cum­ber­some and laborious.

If, in contrast, you use spe­cial­ized software such as MS Project, you can con­ve­nient­ly zoom in on specific sections of the project, directly link detailed plans to the work package and sub­pro­jects, mark the documents and persons in charge for the re­spec­tive task – and ideally manage all plans and doc­u­men­ta­tion from one platform.

A work structure plan con­sti­tutes the basis in project man­age­ment for all ad­di­tion­al detailed planning which is why it is one of project planning’s cen­ter­pieces. Beginners often struggle with this document; however, the task can easily be managed if you proceed me­thod­i­cal­ly and in­cre­men­tal­ly, and if you take the indicated tips and prin­ci­ples into con­sid­er­a­tion. In any case, the effort to create one is worth­while, as the better and more thought-out the WBS, the more smoothly further planning and project execution can proceed.

A work breakdown structure template can provide an ori­en­ta­tion. Pro­fes­sion­al project managers should however rely on spe­cial­ized software. The relevant ap­pli­ca­tions offer many practical ad­di­tion­al features, such as being able to find the ap­pro­pri­ate details in the WBS at any time.

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