Developing the Work Breakdown Structure

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) gives us a description of what work needs to be done to complete the project. The WBS is in the form of a hierarchical diagram. As you traverse down the levels, more detail is provided on the work. In the WBS you have two types of work items called an activity and a task. An activity is a piece of work. A task is a smaller piece of work. Activities turn into tasks in the WBS. The last term you need to know is the work package. The work package guides us in how the tasks that make up the activity will be done.Breaking down the work into different levels in the hierarchy is called decomposition. We take each activity and break it down into steps. These steps will be the next activities a level down in the hierarchy. By decomposing the project you can get an estimate on the duration of the project. Required resources will come to light as well as the schedule for the work. There are two main approaches to decomposing a project plan, the top-down approach and the bottom-up approach.

The top-down approach takes the main goal of the project and continues to break it apart into steps until the work required is adequately described. Starting at the top level your break that activity up into simpler tasks until it is decomposed to a satisfactory scale. You continue to break down each level until you are at a satisfactory level of decomposition. Once all the activities are broken down, you can estimate time, cost and resources necessary to complete the project.The bottom-up approach is similar to the top-down approach. The team collectively breaks the first level down into major activities. The team is then divided into teams for each of the major activities. Each team then uses the brainstorming technique to come up with the activities to complete that portion of the project. Someone in the group will suggest an activity that would need to be done for the major activity. If the group agrees, the activity is written down. Once all the activities are written down, they are separated into similar groups. Each group of activities is reexamined to see what other activities need to be done. Once this is done, each group presents the activities it believes will need to complete.Only by completing a Work Breakdown Structure can a project succeed. The project must know what activities and tasks need to be completed. These activities must have an estimate of duration, number of resources and associated costs. Using a WBS will enable better reporting and quicker responses to problems as they arise in the project.