Finding value with WBS
A Work Breakdown Structure is a higher level project artifact that supports the creation of schedules and budgets. The WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.
The Tree Structure View is the most popular format for the Work Breakdown Structure.
The WBS utilizes the project charter as its starting point.
The WBS Dictionary defines, details, and clarifies the various elements of the WBS. Neglecting to create a WBS dictionary can cause “ownership” dilemmas that can ultimately threaten project success.
Another interesting thing about WBS, is that planned outcomes or deliverables (which should be fairly rigid) should not be closely blended with actions and methods (which can be flexible). As a general rule, WBS tasks should have durations between 1 week and 8 weeks long. Bright Hub PM explains why. One more thing to remember is this:
The first step to creating your WBS is to get all your team, and possibly key stakeholders, together in one room.
Your project team possesses all the expertise, experience, and creative thinking that will be needed to get down to the specifics of each deliverable, so naturally the WBS should be drafted with input from all team members. If the project manager creates the WBS with limited input from other project team members, they people may in turn offer little to no support for the WBS. It may be time-consuming, but in the long run it pays to engage all of the core project leaders in WBS development.
All WBS concepts are described in the following articles.
Also have a look at these templates:
