What is a work breakdown structure?

- [Voiceover] After you get the go ahead to plan your project, the first thing you do is identify the work that has to be done. A work breakdown structure, or WBS, is what you use to divvy up project work into bite sized pieces. So you can plan, track, and manage your project effectively. Creating a WBS helps the project in several ways. First, it's easier to estimate time and cost for smaller chunks of work. Second, it's easier to assign work to team members.

Third, by breaking work into smaller pieces, you build check points into your project that allow you to measure progress. A WBS contains two kinds of tasks. Summary tasks, and work packages. Summary tasks are the higher level tasks that summarize project work in some way. Summary tasks can describe each portion of the project. Including, Updating conference center technology, Remodeling the conference center, and so on.

The number of levels of summary tasks depends on the size of the project. A few levels is probably enough for a small project. With a large, or complex project, you could have many levels of summary tasks. Work packages are the lowest level tasks in the work breakdown structure. They spell out project deliverables and the details of the work needed to deliver them. In our example, under Install Technology, work packages might include Run cables, Set up racks, Place equipment, Configure equipment, Connect to network, and Test.

By breaking your project down into manageable pieces, the work breakdown structure helps you plan project work and manage it effectively.