The Work Breakdown Structure Template is a project management tool that helps you map out everything a project must accomplish, breaking down those tasks into multiple levels, and displaying these elements graphically. It’s a deliverable-based approach, which means you’ll create a detailed project plan of all the deliverables you need to complete the project.
When to use a Work Breakdown Structure?
When you need to break your team's work down into manageable pieces, you can use a WBS Template. This template is a helpful project management tool that can keep team members informed, identify specific project deliverables, and help you develop a project schedule. This hierarchical structure makes it easier for a project manager to oversee a complex project and make sure every task gets done.
What are the 4 elements of a Work Breakdown Structure template?
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Hierarchy.
In a hierarchical model each "child" element corresponding to a subtask of the parent task. When all the "child" elements are taken into account, this provides a clear overview of the parent task.
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100% rule.
Every level of the graph must make up 100% of the parent level, and it must have at least two “child” elements.
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Mutually exclusive elements.
Having mutual exclusivity helps to reduce miscommunication and avoid duplicate work.
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Outcome-oriented.
The Work Breakdown Structure is fundamentally a system that focuses on deliverables rather than activities required to produce them. A good rule of thumb is to describe elements using nouns rather than verbs.
How to Create a Work Breakdown Structure in 3 Steps
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Set goals & objectives
Make sure you understand the goals and objectives of the project by scoping the entire project. This includes determining what your project team is trying to accomplish and how it fits into the goals of your organization.
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Lay out deliverables
The next step is to catalog all of the major high-level deliverables of the project. These deliverables will be the second tier of the structure, and will be comprised of sub-projects that work towards the overall goals & objectives laid out in the first step.
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Break deliverables into individual tasks
Break down the deliverables even further into smaller tasks that need to be completed daily in order to complete the project.
Work Breakdown Structure Example
In FigJam’s work breakdown structure the product launch steps divided into departments. In this example, you will find the tasks divided according to these areas:
- Research
- Design
- Development
- QA
- Measurement
You can add tasks under each department to make the template work best for your organization. Tasks could include user research, product development, performance tracking, etc. Having the entire process laid out in this way will help improve your project efficiency by allowing you to see at a glance who is responsible for what.
