1. Concepts and Definitions Work Breakdown Structures
Project Task Planning 1
Concepts and Definitions
Work Breakdown Structures

2. Concepts First, some terms: Second, notice what terms are not on here:
Deliverables: Things you produce and deliver to a stakeholder
Activities: Major work groupings whose completion result in the completion of a deliverable
Tasks: Smaller units of work from which activities are composed
Milestone: measurable achievement on a project; typically the completion of an activity or the completion of a deliverable.
Work package: Leaf nodes of a work breakdown structure; these represent the atomic units of work from that WBS’ perspective
Subprojects may decompose a work package in a separate WBS
Second, notice what terms are not on here:
Schedule, Dependency, Time, Resources
These are not today’s game

3. Work Breakdown Structures
What are WBSs for?
Before worrying about what to do first (or next), a project manager must first have a tool for organizing the scope of work.
This dictates team composition, phases of work, reporting structure, …
An excellent “macro-”level tool
This is big picture, “get your arms around it” organizational stuff
Therefore, this tool is useful early in a project or in a phase.
Approaches to Developing WBSs:
Deliverables driven: Remain focused on decomposing by deliverable to ensure better estimating and tracking.
Guidelines: Some organizations (DOD), provide guidelines for preparing WBSs
Analogy approach: It often helps to review WBSs of similar projects
Top-down approach: Start with the largest items of the project and keep breaking them down
Bottom-up approach: Start with the detailed tasks and roll them up
Course Technology, 1999

4. Work Breakdown Structure
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is an outcome-oriented analysis of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project
Provides the basis for planning and managing project schedules, costs, and changes
Does not show interdependencies or sequencing
Captures the total scope of the project
Note the tree-like, taxonomical categorization of work
Can be organized many ways - this one by Deliverable
Course Technology, 1999

5. Intranet WBS Organized by  Phase
More WBS Examples
Intranet WBS Organized by  Phase
Course Technology, 1999
Intranet
Project UI
Design
Application
Dev
Systems
Arch
Deploy-
ment
Middle
ware
Database
Schema
Security E-
Commerce
Message
Service
Intranet WBS Organized by Function 

6. Even More WBS Examples Intranet WBS Organized by Lifecycle Phase 
Build software
System planning (1.0)
Coding (3.0)
Testing(4.0)
Delivery (5.0)
Top-level design (2.1)
Prototyping (2.2)
User interface (2.3)
Detailed design (2.4)
System design (2.0)
Review specification(1.1)
Review budget (1.2)
Review schedule(1.3)
Develop plan (1.4)
«break down into»
Activities
Tasks
«roll up into»
Intranet WBS Organized by Lifecycle Phase 
1.0 Concept
1.1 Evaluate current systems
1.2 Define Requirements
1.2.1 Define user requirements
1.2.2 Define content requirements
1.2.3 Define system requirements
1.2.4 Define server owner requirements
1.3 Define specific functionality
1.4 Define risks and risk management approach
1.5 Develop project plan
1.6 Brief web development team
2.0 Web Site Design
3.0 Web Site Development
4.0 Roll Out
5.0 Support
WBS Tabular Organization 
Course Technology, 1999

7. A Bad WBS Example

8. WBS Top 10 Best Practices*
The top element of the WBS is the overall deliverable of the project, and all stakeholders agree with it.
The first two levels of the WBS (the root node and Level 2) define a set of planned outcomes that collectively and exclusively represent 100% of the project scope.
The WBS elements are defined in terms of outcomes or results. (Outcomes are the desired ends of the project, and can be predicted accurately).
The WBS encompasses everything that will ultimately comprise the project deliverable, and all deliverables in the project are included.
Each WBS element contains the following two items:
the scope of work, including any “deliverables,”
the name of the person responsible for the scope of work.
There is no overlap in scope definition between two elements of a WBS.
The WBS is not a project plan or schedule, and it is not a chronological listing.
The WBS is not an organizational hierarchy.
The WBS has been decomposed and it is no longer possible to define planned outcomes–the only details remaining are actions.
The WBS is not an exhaustive list of work. It is a comprehensive classification of scope.
*Abridged from M.D. Taylor,

9. Pros and Cons of WBSs Benefits: Drawbacks:
Organized, hierarchical structure of tasks
Leads to traceability
Easier to plan task categories
Easy to track task categories at various levels
Accountability can be assigned at various levels
Tool support
There are a lot of WBS/PM tools available to you
RC/Jazz WorkItem hierarchies can be organized likewise
Drawbacks:
Horizontal task dependencies not identified
Does not provide a calendar or other type view of concurrent tasks
These drawbacks are really common misuses of WBSs!