60% of project managers are juggling up to five different projects at any one time. Ouch! 😬
If that’s you, a work breakdown structure (WBS) is a great tool to help overcome complexity by breaking even the most cryptic projects down into bite-size chunks. Not only will a WBS help you stay more organized, but it will also build clarity across the team, reduce risk, and enable you to better control your project’s scope.
Sounds great, right? Right. But where do you start?
We’ve asked our project management experts at Toggl to explain work breakdown structures, including what they are, why they’re so useful, and how you can begin creating your own straight away. If you scroll down far enough, we’ve even included a sample template for ya.
TL;DR — Key Takeaways
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a project management tool forbreaking down complex projects into manageable tasks.
A WBS helps you stay organized, boost collaboration, reduce risk, and better control your project scope, timeline, and budget.
There are two types of WBS: deliverable-based (perfect for complex technical projects) and phase-based (perfect for sequential projects).
To create one, define your project scope, then break down the deliverables or project phases into individual tasks and sub-tasks. Then, give each one an owner and a time and cost estimate.
For the best results, create a WBS as a team, aim to be clear and concise, stick to the 100% rule, and align it with other project documents.
What is a work breakdown structure (WBS)?
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a project management tool used to break down the work within a project, providing a complete view of each individual component. A WBS is often created in the early stages of the project life cycle, helping teams to:
Identify project deliverables
Build their initial project plan
Assign task owners
Like many things in project management, a work breakdown structure chart is shown in a hierarchical structure to highlight the dependencies between components and subcomponents. This creates a clear visual representation of the project to help project team members stay aligned.
A work breakdown structure also shows how tasks align with each of the project phases and how each one contributes to the project objective. This makes it easier for project managers to track progress against the project schedule and spot any risks to the project budget.
For all of these reasons, the Project Management Institute, the leading project management body, recommends completing a work breakdown structure as part of its project planning process.
And honestly, with all the benefits a work breakdown structure provides, it’s hard to argue, especially if you’re managing multiple complex projects!
Different types of work breakdown structures
There are two ways to break down a project.
You can either focus on ‘what’ the entire project will deliver or ‘when’ the project will deliver each part. Based on your answer to those questions, you will likely use one of two different types of work breakdown structure templates to uncover all the tasks.
Let’s take a look at each one to see which may be best for you and your project.
Deliverable-based work breakdown structure
If you’re keen to understand ‘what’ the project will achieve, a deliverable-based WBS organizes the work under each of the products, services, or outputs within the project’s scope.
For this type of WBS, each deliverable is broken down into sub-deliverables, clearly showing the components that make up the final outputs.
This type of WBS is commonly used for engineering, manufacturing, or construction projects, where the deliverables are highly technical and include many intricate parts.
Top tip:
A deliverable-based WBS provides clarity on the deliverables themselves and clearly shows how the work aligns with the project’s scope. But on the other hand, it doesn’t highlight when each deliverable will be completed within the project timeline.
Phase-based work breakdown structure
A phase-based WBS is perfect for breaking down ‘when’ each work package will be completed. Depending on your chosen project life cycle, WBS packages are organized under each project phase, showing how the deliverables are created over time.
This approach clearly shows when work packages will be completed and how each one feeds into project scheduling and key transition points. Where the required deliverables are highly complex, a phase-based WBS isn’t as strong as it focuses more on timing rather than specification.
Top tip:
This type of WBS is commonly used for design, software, or marketing projects that follow a sequential process or have many task dependencies.
Key elements of a work breakdown structure
While every company is slightly different, bodies such as the Project Management Institute have worked hard to standardize the key components of a great work breakdown structure. This helps keep project management documents consistent and ensures every project manager works to the same standard.
When building a WBS structure, make sure it includes the following elements:
#1 — Project scope: All work breakdown structures start with the project scope statement. This ensures all the work links back to the project objectives. For example, ‘building a house.’
#2—Deliverables or phases:Depending on your chosen format, the next level of a WBS shows the project deliverables or phases that underpin the project scope. In a deliverable-based WBS, this could be ‘walls,’ ‘roof,’ and ‘foundation,’ whereas in a phase-based approach, you may go for ‘design,’ ‘plan,’ and ‘build.’
#3 — WBS elements: Underneath the deliverables or phases come the specific WBS elements or work packages. E.g., In our deliverable-based WBS example, under the ‘walls’ deliverable you could list ‘bricks’ or ‘mortar’ as a WBS element.
#4 — Supporting information: To finish, for each of the work packages, you may include additional information, such as who is responsible for individual tasks, how much budget is assigned, or how much of the work is currently completed. This information will develop over time as the project progresses.
Top tip:
Many project managers also create a WBS dictionary along with a project’s work breakdown structure. This dictionary details more information about each WBS element, including a detailed explanation of what the work is and how it contributes to the overarching project objectives.
Why use a WBS in project management?
As you can see, work breakdown structures are an essential part of project management. They help break projects into manageable components, improve project structure, align key team members, and support risk management.
Let’s look at each of those benefits in more detail. 👀
Improved project organization
A work breakdown structure provides a clear framework for organizing and managing project tasks. This helps make large projects more manageable and improves resource allocation, budget control, and stakeholder management.
Enhance clarity and communication
Clear work packages improve understanding and communication across the team. Outlining and visualizing detailed tasks creates alignment and clarity for all involved, helping to avoid miscommunications, minimize conflicts, and improve task management for all project participants.
Better time management
Understanding each work package helps project managers create more reliable estimates and track progress more accurately. This, in turn, helps the team be more efficient, maximizing resource capacity while keeping project costs down.
Earlier risk identification
Clear work breakdown structures help project managers spot risks such as bottlenecks and competing priorities. This allows them more time to develop mitigation strategies, reducing the likelihood of missing project milestones or underperforming on project deliverables.
How to create a work breakdown structure
Much like other planning techniques, such as creating a Gantt Chart, building a work breakdown structure is easier if you follow a consistent process. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started.
1. Define the project scope
The first step to building a project work breakdown structure is to clearly define your project scope. In many instances, this may be included in the project’s business case, but if not, work with stakeholders to agree on a set of project aims.
Top tip:
Remember, a project’s scope must cover everythingit sets out to do. For large projects or programs, you may even need more than one scope item, and thus WBS!
2. Establish the top-level phases or deliverables
For a deliverable-based WBS, next, identify the products, services, or outputs that underpin each scope item. These should be the highest level deliverables you can describe and should strictly be just one step down from the scope items themselves.
Top tip:
For a phased approach, align with your organization’s chosen project life cycle. If your organization doesn’t have one, at a minimum, include phases for Design, Planning, Build, Test, and Go-Live.
3. Break down deliverables or phases into smaller tasks
With your outline structure in place, it’s time to create the work packages that sit underneath. First, start with the parent task that underpins each deliverable within the project before breaking them down further into sub-tasks and sub-deliverables.
Top tip:
Be careful to strike the balance between too much and not enough detail, though. As a rule of thumb, anyone should be able to quickly read and understand a WBS, with further details saved for the WBS dictionary.
4. Assign tasks and responsibilities to the team
Now that you’ve identified all of your work breakdown structure elements, it’s time to begin turning your WBS into a project plan by assigning each task to a team or individual. This helps build accountability, feeds into resource management, and ensures everyone is clear on how they contribute to the project’s deliverables.
5. Agree on a time and cost estimate for each task
As you assign tasks to each team member, use their knowledge and experience to estimate how long they think each one will take and how much it will cost. Again, this will feed into other project controls, such as scheduling and project budgeting.
Top tip:
Alternatively, if you’re using tools like Toggl Track, you can view past data within the project dashboard to better understand what tasks, time, and costs went into each deliverable. Here is what that might look like.
6. Refine your WBS and track your progress
Where many project managers go wrong is creating a WBS that they never use again. Instead, use your WBS to help you actively manage your project, keeping track of task completion as well as your performance against the project schedule and budget.
As your project evolves, so will your WBS. So, keep reviewing and refining it as things change to help you stay organized and keep your stakeholders up to date. Toggl Track is great for this, automatically alerting you to delays and overspends as your project develops.
Tips for making a work breakdown structure
You must adapt your work breakdown structure to fit your team, projects, and goals. While a project breakdown seems like a simple process, there are some common pitfalls that make it easy to go wrong. To help, here are four top tips to help you stay on track and nail your first work breakdown structure. 🚀
Involve the entire project team
Project managers can’t do everything on their own, so why would this be the case for a WBS? Use your team’s knowledge, experience, and skills to co-create your project’s breakdown structure. Not only will this lead to a more comprehensive output, but it will also foster ownership, accountability, and buy-in around the project plan.
Clarity beats detail every time
A WBS should make your project easier to understand, not harder, so do away with complex jargon, acronyms, and complexity. A clear, high-level WBS helps visualize the project and get everyone on the same page, with a WBS dictionary perfect for storing additional detail if required.
Stick to the 100% rule
Every work breakdown structure should follow the 100% rule, meaning it must include 100% of your project’s work! Even if a task only contributes one percent to the final product, it should still be in the WBS. This ensures your project estimates are as accurate as possible and eliminates the risk of missing something that may trip you up in the future.
Align your WBS with other project documents
While a WBS is a crucial project management tool, it shouldn’t be created in isolation. Ensure your WBS aligns with the project scope, project charter, and business case to align every task with the overarching goal.
Top tip:
Once created, your WBS will help shape other documents, such as the project timeline, project budget, and risk management plan. As those other items are updated, make sure you re-align the WBS to keep your entire project in sync.
Do you need work breakdown structure software?
If you’re managing a simple project with only a few moving parts, you may not need software and can simply create a basic WBS in a spreadsheet or digital notepad.
But, like many things in project management, when things get complex, software can really help make your life so much easier. Here are just a few of the advantages that using specialized software, like Toggl Track, brings to the WBS process:
Flexibility to use different work breakdown structure formats 🤸
Helps easily break complex deliverables down into manageable tasks ⛓️💥
Creates one central point to share, collaborate, and store data for the next project 🤝
As your project changes, it’s easy to make updates at the click of a button ✅
You can use templates to create work packages in seconds, boosting efficiency and saving time ⚙
Automatically track task progress and costs, alerting you when something doesn’t look right 📢
If you need a place to easily plan, track, and report on projects, check out Toggl Track. If you bring together the project-planning power of Toggl Plan and the time-monitoring oversight of Toggl Track, you’ve got a new best friend who’s ready to take you and your project to the next level! 🚀
Create your free account now to get started.
James Elliott is a strategy manager and writer from London, UK. James writes on a variety of business and project management topics with a focus on content that enables readers to take action and improve their ways of working. You can check out James’ work on his website or by connecting on LinkedIn.
