WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS)

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a key project

deliverable that organizes the team's work into
manageable sections.

The Project Management Body of Knowledge

(PMBOK) defines the work breakdown structure as a
"deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the
work to be executed by the project team.

The work breakdown structure visually defines the

scope into manageable chunks that a project team can
understand, as each level of the work breakdown
structure provides further definition and detail
Example # 1
Example # 2

To develop your WBS, you will need to:

Step 1: Write down the big blocks of work that need to be done for
you to complete your project.
Step 2: Take each of the blocks STEP 1 and break it down further
keep breaking it down until you get to tasks which can be assigned to
and completed by a person or small team. Continue doing this for each
of the blocks of work.
Example # 3
 Benefits of WBS
The work breakdown structure has a number of benefits in
addition to defining and organizing the project work.

A project budget can be allocated to the top levels of the work

breakdown structure, and department budgets can be quickly
calculated based on the each project's work breakdown
structure.

By allocating time and cost estimates to specific sections of the

work breakdown structure, a project schedule and budget can be
quickly developed.
 WBS Structure Guidelines
The following guidelines should be considered when creating a
work breakdown structure:

The top level represents the final deliverable or project Sub-

deliverables contain work packages that are assigned to a
organizations department or unit
All elements of the work breakdown structure dont need to be
defined to the same level
The work package defines the work, duration, and costs for the
tasks required to produce the sub-deliverable
Work packages should not exceed 10 days of duration
Work packages should be independent of other work packages
in the work breakdown structure
Work packages are unique and should not be duplicated across
the work breakdown structure
 DECOMPOSITION TECHNIQUE IN
PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Decomposition is an important technique used in WBS

creation (Scope Management) and definition of
activities (Time Management).

In scope management, project deliverables are

subdivided into smaller and more manageable
components until the work and deliverables are defined
to the work package level. This is called as
decomposition.
Decomposition of project scope generally involves the
following activities:

Gather information on major project deliverables and

analyze related tasks
Start development of work breakdown structure(WBS)
at the highest level
Decompose the upper WBS levels into lower level
detailed components
Identify each work package & WBS components with
unique code, and
Verify if the degree of decomposition of the work is
necessary and sufficient
No. of Levels of WBS need not be same for all
deliverables
 PROJECT SCHEDULING
o The project schedule provides a graphical representation
of predicted tasks, milestones, dependencies, resource
requirements, task duration, and deadlines.
o The projects master schedule interrelates all tasks on a
common time scale.
o The project schedule should be detailed enough to show
each WBS task to be performed, the name of the person
responsible for completing the task, the start and end
date of each task, and the expected duration of the task
Basic efforts associated with developing a project
schedule include the following

1. Define the type of schedule

2. Define precise and measurable milestones
3. Estimate task duration
4. Define priorities
5. Define the critical path
6. Document assumptions
7. Identify risks
8. Review results
SAMPLE PERT CHART
SAMPLE GANNT CHART