What to do

How to do it

1

Determine your strategy for developing a work breakdown structure (WBS)

Consider meeting with project team members and others with expertise in similar projects to develop the WBS.  Some benefits of involving the team include:

• Team members and experts bring experience from other projects
• Fosters early buy-in to the project among team members
• Helps discover new or forgotten tasks
• Gives insight to the overall project for team members

2

Identify the highest level components of work  to be accomplished

Example of highest-level or first level components that logically group work:

• Product deliverables – such as Project Charter, Project Plan
• Life Cycle Phases – such as Analyze, Design, Build
• Functions – such as Create New Student, Update Grades
• Organizational responsibility -  such as Finance, Network Services

3

Break work process into small components

Under each high-level component, break the work into small components until each component is defined to a level of detail that allows accurate estimating for the time and cost required for its completion.

Note: Create the work breakdown structure to the level of project detail you understand.

If the project spans a long period of time, it is difficult to identify the detailed tasks for work a year or more in the future. In this case keep the tasks at a high level for the entire project and create a detailed work breakdown for work for the next phase or period of time

4

Name the component

The component name should adequately describe the task to be completed. Use the noun-verb format.
Examples:

• Document User Manual
• Install Network Routers
• Review Project Charter

5

Make sure work has been broken down to the lowest level desired

Apply the following guidelines to ensure work has been broken down to its lowest level:

• One and only one staff resource can be assigned to a task (This is a general guideline. In certain instances there may be a team assigned to a task (such as a review team) or two people working side-by-side delivering one final product from a task).
• Each task has clearly identified results
• Tasks can be performed within a reasonable time. The industry “80 hour rule” states that a work task should be completed in two weeks (or less)
• The task name conveys the work to be accomplished
• The task is at the level you want to track the project
• Each task is well enough defined and small enough so estimates of duration are credible