We're sure that you know how to use a grammar tree. A work breakdown structure, also known as WBS, is a grammar tree with a deliverable-oriented and hierarchical project structure. 

This "structure" is "deconstructed," so a WBS, as a helpful diagram, shows all the tasks that the project deliverable contains, from the global ones to the most specific ones. 

A work breakdown structure clearly outlines all the steps of the project and shows them in a breakdown structure chart, which is great for project planning. WBS is a deconstruction of the entire project and allows you to check and track each of its steps, phases, involved team members, resources, budget, and more.

There are multiple ways to utilize the manageable components of a WBS to enhance your resource management. Next, we're giving you three examples of your scope baseline and how to use it for different purposes.   

Statement of Work

Among all the project management documents between a client and an organization, a Statement of Work, aka SOW, is one of the most important. This is because this document is made at the outset of a project. It also outlines all the necessary to go into the project. 

In a few words, SOW is a legal document that defines and details all the management aspects, such as the requirements and resources of a project, deadlines, deliverables, and all the work packages.   

Scope of Work

Scope of work is an agreement that describes the actions that a specific project will perform. This document includes deliverables, sub-deliverables, milestones, must-have features, and resources.  

In this regard, a WBS in project management is crucial to break down the scope into work package ID. This way, they are easier to track and control. It allows you to define milestones and phases easily and assign resources.  

Work Order

A work order is a document similar to the first mentioned in this section. The main difference is that a work order shows specific work and its costs. This document is relevant for big to smaller tasks to better understand the resources and money you need to spend.

Beyond work packages, there are other concepts and words worth mentioning to understand the entire process of building a work breakdown structure.

• WBS dictionary. As its name suggests, the WBS dictionary allows stakeholders to know and understand a project's WBS components. It contains all our project's elements, even the smallest ones. 
• WBS Levels. Since a WBS is a hierarchical structure, it has various levels that determine the relevance of any part. Each level represents a project's deliverable. The three levels are main deliverables, control accounts and project deliverables, and work packages.  
• Project Deliverables. These are the outcomes of particular activities and work packages. A clear example of project deliverables in any project are department budget.   
• Control accounts. These are used to organize work packages and measure their feasibility and results. In other words, you use them to control several areas of the project plan. A project phase can be considered a control account since it measures all sub-activities and processes of work packages and deliverables.
• Tasks. These are the primary cells of any work package and the general project scope. The project charter and its unique nature define which tasks are necessary and fundamental and their status, owners, dependencies, descriptions, and duration.

There are two main types of WBS, although other elements characterize other types. These two types are the following:

Deliverable-Based Work Breakdown Structure

A work breakdown structure chart is a great tool you can leverage when you've chosen the deliverable-based WBS. These WBS charts are diagrams that can help you understand manageable pieces and tasks and how they depend on each other. A WBS chart will also help you track activities and establish deadlines and a complete timeline.

Work Breakdown Structure - Gantt Chart

Building your own WBS is not a challenging task. It involves several efforts, such as gathering information, group team members, and organizing activities. Still, you can do it in hours or minutes with a clear definition. Now we're giving you some content creation steps you should follow:

1. Collect all the Data and Information for the Project

Every project should start with gathering the essential information the stakeholders need. It means the contract documents, the project charter, and the project plan. This data is used to define the project's scope or the scope management plan.

2. Define the Type of WBS you Need to Create

According to the work breakdown structure definition, WBS can be divided into two categories, which we mentioned in an early section. So, what type of WBS do you need? A phase-based WBS? A deliverable-based WBS? Thanks to this, you can select the proper WBS template, build the work breakdown structure template you need, or even use some WBS examples as a guideline.

3. Define the Main Goals of your Project

Your project's primary goals and objectives define its scope and the project management framework. The global vision determines what resources your organization will use, what departments will be involved and what project tasks it will carry out. The project charter should record all the parts that integrated the main goals, i.e., team members, objectives, resources, and deadlines.  

4. Identify the Phases and Control Accounts of the Project

Now that your project team has met your project's primary goals, it's time to identify the phases of the project management plan. It would help if you broke the general scope into the phases necessary to complete the project. It's also time to set control accounts to define categories and organize general tasks and project milestones.

5. Define your Project Deliverables

Project deliverables are simply the results of activities that may be minor or major. Their number depends on the size and project budget. Deliverables are agreed upon by key stakeholders, project participants, and the management team during the planning phase.

Deliverables are also known as outputs of a project. A good example is specific documentation while completing a particular task or a product or service you deliver at the end of the process. 

6. Establish WBS Levels

WBS levels make a work breakdown structure a "deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition" with segments and units called word packages. To set the different levels of your WBS, you need to start from the final project deliverable and then think about the other WBS elements, such as minor deliverables and work packages.

7. Create your Work Packages

As we mentioned above, when you know your deliverables, you can break them into many tasks and subtasks you need to deliver. When you're sure of all the tasks the deliverables require, you can group them into work packages.

8. Define the People in Charge of Each Task

Now you have all the tasks clearly defined, you can determine many other things, such as the project schedule, the project data, and the task owners. Each WBS element should have its project team owner who makes the task come to fruition. Each team member should also work with management tools and resources to develop their activities and get the interim deliverables.

The Microsoft Office suite has a complex tool called Microsoft Project that is crucial to managing, planning, setting, and project scheduling. This software project of Microsoft Office allows you to create a WBS list and a Gantt chart to plan and track the progress of your project. Creating a WBS with Microsoft Project is accessible from the most to the lowest level.

Although you can build a WBS in Excel, this structure shows its true colors when you use Microsoft Project Manager. Below, you’ll find some relevant pieces of advice you should follow. 

1. Identify Project Deliverables

The first is to identify the five stages of the project: Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring, and Closure. Each of these stages produces deliverables. For this reason, it's essential to identify stages and most deliverables that you can set apart in the Gantt chart. We recommend that you use a color code to differentiate the phase.

2. Define All Tasks and Set Owners

Describe the necessary tasks to complete the deliverables. Set the work packages and add them above the related tasks. These can be deliverables or phases, depending on the WBS you use.

3. Link Dependencies

Dependencies are tasks that depend on the execution of other tasks to start. To link task dependencies, you need to drag one to another. This practice brings multiple benefits. Among these, you avoid bottlenecks and can forecast when you need particular resources. 

4. Define Resources and Costs

Knowing precisely how many phases, deliverables, and work packages your project has, you can calculate the resources your team will use and the estimated costs. Resources and costs involve materials to equipment. Thanks to the hierarchy, you can break down the tasks and define better costs of smaller pieces and activities.

5. Configure a Timeline 

Every work represented, and task contained in the work breakdown structure has a beginning and an endpoint. Just add the initial date when you need a job to begin and establish an end date when you assume the task finishes according to the effort required. You'll also have to configure a general deadline for the entire project.

6. Track the Status of Work Packages and Control Accounts

While running the tasks, you can track the entire project and each task to check if the project advances as planned. You can follow several things: time consumption, resources, costs, the percentage of completion, etcetera, and compare them with the previous planning. 

7. Make some Notes

Making some notes while planning any project is crucial to understand many of its phases. Creating a work breakdown structure is not different. Having a section where you jot down notes while the WBS is running is probably the best decision. This practice will help you address aspects of the project that do not fit the tree view. 

8. Write a Report

Developing a report from time to time will give you essential data to illuminate the general progress, costs, and other relevant information. One reporting period will depend on the nature of your project. It can be monthly, weekly, or even daily. Ask your organization's teams for compelling reports to understand the general process and decide if you need to advance to a subsequent level or make changes.

Regardless of the type of work breakdown structure you choose to use, you should consider the following four tips:

• 100% rule. Decomposition in WBS should consider 100% of a specific level. It means decomposition must show all the tasks and activities, no matter if they are insignificant. It should also have at least two child elements. 
• Maintain tasks mutually exclusive. Any WBS element should be exclusive. This way, it will be separate from its work or all the deliverables. This practice is excellent for reducing redundancy and preventing duplicate work.  
• Go just deep enough. We spoke many times about smaller components and subtasks in this article. But do not get crazy with every WBS level while planning the work breakdown structure. Remember that the WBS can be simple enough. Good WBS has between three and five levels.     
• Focus on outcomes. A work breakdown structure WBS is heavily focused on delivering work results rather than the task dependencies necessary to get there. You should explain the deliverables you describe via nouns, not verbs, which is a crucial point for creating work breakdown structures.

This section will give you some templates you can use to create your work breakdown structure from scratch.

A Casual WBS Template

Creating a work breakdown structure is a crucial practice you should consider as a business owner or project manager in such cases. Read this article carefully as often as you want if you have doubts about general concepts. Remember that your work breakdown structure needs at least two levels of hierarchy: the parent level and the phase or deliverable level. A third level is desirable but not fundamental. The same rule applies to all the templates mentioned in this article.

Last but not least, if you're interested in reading other related articles and downloading helpful templates for many departments of your business, we recommend you browse our blog. Here you'll discover many exciting tools to enhance your organization and operations.