I Dove Deep Into Work Breakdown Structures — Here‘s What I’ve Learned – InstantFollowerz

Here’s a quick truth. Before I wrote this article, I stumbled upon it Akin’s lawswhich conveniently summarizes the structures of operation failures. A fun “law” is: It’s called a work breakdown structure because the remaining work will grow until you break even unless you impose some structure on it. This law is clear and true!

All kidding aside, while I was studying to get my project management degree, I found an instructive note in the PMBOK guide. The Instructionswhich is the go-to resource for project managers, cautions that “no project should be without a WBS.”

Without a work breakdown structure (WBS), your projects have a high chance of exceeding their deadlines and budgets and failing to meet stakeholder expectations. You don’t want any of this.

So, in this guide, I’ll draw on my experience as a project management professional to share what I’ve learned about work breakdown structures. You’ll also get insight from industry experts to help you learn more about WBS.

Content

What is a work breakdown structure?

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a visual overview of the various steps in a project. These steps organize everything about your project hierarchically.

According to Jeffrey Pintoauthor and professor, WBS is a planning mechanism for knowing the interrelationship of different activities in a project. In its simplest form, a WBS looks like what you see in template below:

Source

Elements of the structure of the broken down work

Based on what I learned from Pinto, every WBS has at least four levels project management.

However, if your project is complex, you will have more sub-deliverables and your work package will continue to grow.

Here are the four levels of WBS for a simple project.

Level	WBS Term	Description
Highest Level/Level 1	Project	Entire project under development
Level 2	Deliverable	Main components of the project
Level 3	Under-deliverable	Supporting results
Level 4 (Activity)	Work package	Individual project activities

To illustrate, I will explain these levels with a WBS for a marketing conference.

Highest Level/Level 1

The highest level of the WBS covers the entire scope of the project. It is also the final result, which describes what I want to achieve. For this project, the top level is “marketing conference plan”.

Level 2

The second level of the WBS describes the main components of the project. It also reduces the scope of the project to units that serve as deliverables.

Deliverables include features for products or stages for tasks. My project is a series of eight tasks. You’ll notice that I’ve numbered each score at this level (and for the lower levels).

This is an intentional element, which is absent from some WBSs I’ve seen.

Pro tip: Numbering your work breakdown structure helps with clarity, organization, and tracking. With numbering, I have a logical and visual way to know the relationship between deliverables, sub-deliverables and work packages. This makes it easier to find a work item, especially for a large project.

Level 3

The third level of the WBS is the sub-deliverable. Each sub-deliverable is a component of the main deliverable you will provide to your stakeholders.

When considering an item as a sub-delivery, ease of handling should be considered. For example, the sub-deliverable, exploration of potential sites (2.1), fits this bill.

Why? It’s manageable. I can give him a few hours. The cost is minimal.

---

If you are creating your own WBS, be sure to use a template to get started.

Activities

The last level of the WBS is the activities. Think of activities like atoms. They are the smallest elements within a sub-delivery or delivery.

For example, to deliver event planning and strategy, I will need to carry out the following activities:

• 1.1 Define goals and objectives

• 1.1.1 Hold an initial meeting with interested parties
• 1.1.2 Draft list of measurable objectives
• 1.1.3 Finalize the goals in the project charter

• 1.2 Identify the target audience

• 1.2.1 Conduct market research
• 1.2.2 Create audience personas
• 1.2.3 Confirm persons with interested parties

• 1.3 Develop event theme and branding

• 1.3.1 Brainstorm topic ideas
• 1.3.2 Logo design and branding materials
• 1.3.3 Approval of theme and branding with interested parties

• 1.4 Determine the budget and allocate resources

• 1.4.1 Identify key cost categories
• 1.4.2 Create an initial budget plan
• 1.4.3 Obtain budget approval from stakeholders

• 1.5 Create a project timeline and milestones

• 1.5.1 Create a detailed project plan
• 1.5.2 Identify key milestones
• 1.5.3 Share the timeline with the team

Advantages of using WBS in project management

When I was learning about WBS, some of my peers didn’t seem convinced. Some have argued that it’s great on paper, but inapplicable in real-world situations. For others, its benefits outweigh the misconception that it doesn’t exist.

So how does a WBS actually help?

WBS prevents range creep.

Every stakeholder is on the same page when there is a WBS.

Without it, stakeholders can keep adding to the project until it becomes unmanageable. When this happens, you’ll need to revisit your timelines, milestones, budget estimates, risks, etc. I would hate for that to happen, especially when it comes to multiple projects.

In a waterfall environment characterized by a sequential approach to project execution, the benefits of WBS in avoiding scope creep will be undeniable.

However, in Agile environments without fully defined end products, some experts argue that stakeholders will change their minds about what they want, when and why.

Although this negates the value of the WBS, one expert argues that agile teams should not use the excuse of agile to not plan and risk scope failure.

“While I realized that a full waterfall style WBS would be necessary in a construction project, they [agile teams] cannot complete any estimates on projects with cross-team dependencies, multi-fiscal delivery dates, and anything more than five team members.”

“At the very least, all end product requirements should be documented, a roadmap of all major deliverables should be communicated, they should be working on some equivalent of a WBS for the next two weeks of work, and ideally by the end of the next a milestone and a rough outline of how they will everything else comes together,” they added.

The WBS helps estimate the project budget.

A work breakdown structure isn’t just a planning tool—it helps with budgeting. By breaking down my project into detailed activities, the WBS makes budget allocation easier.

Budget overruns remain a pervasive problem in project management. In a BCG survey of 403 respondents, 49% said that over 30% of their organization’s technology development projects exceeded their budgets. Technology projects use Agile for the flexibility and iterative progress it offers.

While I understand that a predetermined budget is antithetical to an agile mindset, incorporating a WBS into sprint planning helps. Allocating budgets at the sprint level allows teams to remain flexible while maintaining financial discipline.

The WBS records all work packages.

I’ve found that creating a WBS forces me to think critically about every aspect of the project. From major milestones to detailed deliverables, every work package is accounted for. This not only helps visualize the scope of the project, but also ensures that nothing is overlooked.

But before you write down each package, talking to stakeholders is vital. Failure to do so is one of the reasons for the recent and monumental failure of High-Speed ​​Rail 2 in the UK.

According to Tejvan Pettingereconomist, “[High-Speed Rail 2] it risks being a £50 billion white elephant and a monument to poor planning.”

Pettinger did not suggest that the HS2 team did not have a comprehensive WBS – however, he makes a verifiable claim about constant changes in the scope of the project.

And as we’ve found, when that happens, the project collapses on almost every front and the team has to go back to the drawing board.

Types of WBS in project management

There are two types of WBS:

1. Delivery-based work breakdown structure.
2. Work breakdown structure based on phases.

Delivery-based WBS

A results-based WBS gets tangible results (deliverables) to stakeholders.

What I like about this WBS is its focus on “what to do” instead of “how to do” the task. As such, this WBS is easy to modify, easy to estimate costs, and provides a complete overview of the overall scope of work.

A delivery-based WBS has applications in scenarios such as:

• Projects with clear outcomes such as organizing an event or building a building.
• Client-focused projects such as specific marketing campaigns or design projects.
• Projects that require detailed scope management, such as a new product launch.

Phase-Based WBS

A phase-based WBS organizes work according to successive phases of the project life cycle (initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, closure). With this WBS, I need to detail the process to achieve specific results.

One of the simplest ways to explain a phase-based WBS is to consider a research writing project. Without ethics review, I cannot interview participants to gain insight for writing my final report.

With a phase-oriented WBS, I like the clear insight it provides into the elements that are impeding project progress. This WBS is also great for providing a “when to do” map of tasks, ensuring that each phase builds logically on the previous one.

A phased WBS is suitable for:

• Process-driven projects such as implementing a business system or conducting research and development.
• Standardized life cycle projects such as those following the Waterfall methodology.
• Long-term projects with sequential progression, such as multi-year infrastructure builds or strategic planning initiatives.

How to use WBS for project management

WBS is great for chopping complex projects into their smallest pieces. But beyond its basic function of visualizing project scope, here’s how to use WBS:

1. Assign responsibilities.

WBS makes it easy to assign deliverables or tasks to team members. This helps everyone know what they are responsible for and prevents things from being duplicated.

2. Estimate time and resources.

I use the WBS to determine how long each task will take and what resources are required. This makes it easier to create a realistic schedule and budget.

3. Make communication easier.

A WBS is a great way to keep everyone on the same page. Assists in aligning team members and stakeholders regarding project scope, responsibilities, and timelines.

4. Manage risks.

I look for potential risks in each element of the WBS and make plans to address them before they disrupt the project.

5. Integrate with project management tools.

I’m a fan of tools like Trello and Asana. By feeding the entire WBS into these tools, I make it easy to track tasks, manage resources, and generate reports.

Final Thoughts

The work breakdown structure is the cornerstone that gives clarity to projects.

As I learned about WBS during my studies and applied it to my professional life, immersing myself in its nuances and thinking about its use in real-world scenarios gave me a new perspective.

The WBS is essential not only for project planning and organization, but also for identifying risks and maintaining control over scope and budgeting.

A useful learning for me was the debate about the relevance of WBS in Agile. The product backlog in Agile projects is like a WBS, where epics or features are managed in sprints.

Without thinking about work items, whether in Agile or Waterfall, the project is headed for the rocks.

Bottom line: successful projects start with a well-thought-out plan, and that plan starts with a work breakdown structure.

I’m not sure if you prefer to embed the table or just use the screenshot so I’ve given you both options for these 3 instances (namely because the third one is BIG)