Top Tips for Developing a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

A WBS is to a project manager what a recipe is to a chef.Just like a good recipe it sets out the required ingredients, equipment, methods, timing and performance indicators. Usually, they have a picture of what the dish is supposed to look like and indicate what it will taste like.Very important to making sure you are making the right dish.
Sadly, many projects get underway without a clear:
- picture of what the project is to achieve
- project methodology, and
- understanding of the resources and their availability required to successfully complete the project.
Starting a project without a very clear WBS is inviting failure.

[@lisemelomotholo4024]

Almost majority of the videos I watched explain WBS creation clearly. Thank you.

[@ItsChannel76]

8/80 work package. Budgeting, resource allocation, management allocation, contingency allowance: Realizing almost all of these is quite difficult unless a project is broken down into activities and tasks using action verbs. Great explanation and humor while presenting :)

[@KristinaKushner]

Very details explanation of the WBS! great!

[@energetica346]

This is an excellent all over WBS training. Thank you for sharing

[@emj0301]

thanks a lot for this video, i understand more your explanation, than what my Instructor teach us.

[@joycemuthoki5343]

Great job, very detailed and elaborate.

[@MrBigwill77]

I enjoyed the presentation.

[@augustayarteh7524]

Aw this is great to know about these three elements of break down structure brave explanation to sarah and micheal.

[@georgegrat]

excellent!!!

[@MOFOUNDATION]

Very informative..

[@larrybaker3459]

Great video with a very clear explanation of the WBS. Do you have a template that you might share?

[@praddsouza]

Larry you can use WBS Creator - It is an automated excel template and it is free. Here is their website - infinityexcel.com/wbs-creator-excel-template/

[@Lukmonson]

WBS makes easy, thank you for sharing

[@christineperez562]

5-7 outputs good recommendation

[@SDFlagg]

I'm GREAT on the decomposition portion of the WBS...thank you. Where I'm losing traction is on the cost estimation of tasks. For example, if my total budget is $8.1M and I have 3 main project activities (A,B,C) composed of 22% of remaining contract dollars, 28%, and 34%. My problem is that there is 16% project manager admin costs in there as well. Does that go into the structure? Plus, there is a contingency of 4%...BUT it is included in the admin costs. No matter how I calculate it, when I check my work, I do not return to quite 100% of my budget! I'm wondering "which" costs beget the others? Do I subtract out all admin and contingency BEFORE I go on to estimating the major activities? Or, is it the other way around?

[@efstratiosanagnostopoulos6636]

You have to gather all contigency costs and remove them from all work packages or tasks. You need your reserves gathered together, so you can use them at the Momitoring & Control phase of the Project, to speed up activities that might put you behind schedule or to accomodate mistaken cost estimation that can throw you abobe budget. As a rule of thumb, gather all your contigency reserves so you can allocate them properly when and if needed.

[@michaelkuhn275]

Eric IN IM u Kim

[@christineperez562]

Wonderful charts of WBS

[@deanbeyer1221]

use a mind map with pictures. Around 2:00 looking at this chart...I will slam my head on a formica office table. How will I remember whats in those boxes?

[@AlergicToSnow]

Activities are not part of a WBS. Those that don't understand this are misunderstanding a critical part of the philosophy. PMI says the WBS is "a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the team". Nouns, not verbs. What, not how. It defines and decomposes scope, it does not define how the work products will be completed.

[@jaimed.perkins4408]

Can you explain?

[@AlergicToSnow]

JDP & Associates the WBS defines the work products (nouns). The project schedule defines the activities (verbs) to produce those work products. I think the widespread confusion comes from the fact the “work” in work breakdown structure can be used as either a noun or a verb in the English language. This is unfortunate. It’s more accurate to think of it as a “work product breakdown structure” or work packages breakdown. No matter what you call it, it is there to define and contain the project scope. The WBS dictionary needs to contain a definition of “finished” for each identified work package. Really important- the WBS is a way to define scope. It is not intended to define how the work will be accomplished. If your delivery method is waterfall, the project schedule will later define, for each work package, the activities required to complete the work package and the sequence and timing in which the activities will be performed and then assign resources for the activities and estimate effort and duration. Although not really it’s intended use, I’ve found realistically that if you later decide to switch to agile to deliver one or more defined work packages, then the WBS can be used to start a product backlog for those work packages. Bonus. I communicate the project progress, etc to stakeholders and sponsor at the WBS level. Far too many PMs confuse the business and executives by using the project schedule, which creates more problems than it solves. Business people and, especially executives, generally don’t care about the ‘how’. They just want to know ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘how much’.

[@avs3488]

I really like your lecture. Can you please tell me from where can i have all these presentation slides?

[@emmanuel3047]

WBS is subdivided into ACTIVITY-,FUNCTIONAL -and PHYSICAL breakdown which are not completely covered in your examples. Good if you want to have a clue on how a WBS could look like.

[@robertgomora2202]

The hierarchy of project components is called WBS

[@thabophirie4045]

Very informative video, please share template

[@matrixlone]

basically it helps the project work be digested throughout the project team...like the movie human cinapede..:/

[@naradabhakti]

yes

[@fabriglas]

is there a way to convert the WBS in to a single column of names?

[@efstratiosanagnostopoulos6636]

Yes, if you use MS-Project or other PM programs. The WBS level calculation is performed using increments (like in .doc files).

[@hodaifoxavier8619]

Corrent position yes

[@DoyouKnow-ub3dy]

Year up class

[@khaledahmad5832]

What is the deference between task and activity ?

[@Feenestron]

Using PMBoK approach - an activity is a low-level brick of WBS that leads to a result. Activity may be decomposed to smaller tasks. I think it's like: "to dig a hole" is an activity, "to stick a shovel, to throw ground away" - tasks.

[@johnmoser3594]

@6:24 Huck's Work Breakdown Structure is wrong. Activities aren't WBS elements. Activities can be associated with a WBS; but a WBS is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition, represented as adjective-nouns. A WBS doesn't contain tasks; this has been established since 1970 by the global Project Management Institute.

[@garyoptica]

So you are inferring that the GPMI have declared that a Work Breakdown Structure contains no activities or tasks? I would hardly think that would make sense in the real world...

[@AlergicToSnow]

garyoptica it absolutely makes sense in the real world. The WBS decomposes the scope into work packages- deliverables. It is developed long before the activities to accomplish those deliverables are defined.

[@DodaGarcia]

@@garyoptica the point of the WBS is to establish the deliverables, which are outcomes and not activities

[@marbenzx8628]

Do not follow this WBS because it is incorrect. The WBS is broken down into project components which are nouns not verbs. The activities/tasks are verbs/actions that are entered into the project schedule.

[@DodaGarcia]

Thank you, glad I’m not the only one who noticed that

[@malokalesiba1934]

no

[@gbengaekundayo9676]

No

[@shndou]

Hi Stephen ive got few questions I need assistance with regarding a project management assignment is it possible that I could forward my question via an email to you or to Sarah herself? regards

[@anass918]

hallo