How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

Thursday, January 26th 2023. | Sample Templates

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project – What is the structure of the work schedule? A Work Breakdown Structure or WBS is a method used to break down a large project or task into smaller, manageable pieces of work. The PMBOK defines the WBS as “a delivery-oriented hierarchical breakdown of the work to be performed by the project team.” It is widely used in project management to divide a project into smaller tasks.

Smaller tasks are also known as “work packages”. The work breakdown structure is primarily displayed in a tree hierarchy format. This view makes it easy to see how tasks break down. However, a tabular approach is also common.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

A project may contain some tasks and some may take a long time to complete. As a project manager, you should monitor progress weekly (minimum). If you want to track each week, you should check if the tasks for that week have been completed. So that you can verify that you need smaller tasks to know if they are completed.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In 6 Steps [template]

The WBS also increases the visibility of who is doing what. Without a WBS, the entire project would be just one big task. Without proper visibility, it would be difficult to know progress and who is responsible for what. Therefore, the use of WBS increases accountability in the project team.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

A work breakdown structure also reduces risk by identifying task interdependencies as you actually go through the breakdown process. When you have a big task, it’s hard to know the interdependencies.

The WBS is an important communication and reporting tool. Color-coded tasks can represent status or define scope and responsibility by identifying the different teams involved. The WBS should be clearly defined and established with the project team to be used as the basis for the project scope.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

Work Breakdown Structure (wbs) Template & Example

If it is not in the ETP, it is not part of the scope; if it’s in the scope, it has to be in the WBS – that’s a 100% rule. When you use the 100% rule, everything planned as part of the project deliverables is present in the ETP. This rule has several advantages.

Adherence to the 100% rule guarantees the project manager that all tasks have been covered in the ETP. This in turn will help provide an accurate timeline and timeline. The project schedule is obtained from the budget required to complete the work. The schedule affects the overall project schedule.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

If everything is estimated and included in the scope of the project, there is a good chance that the project will go according to plan. On the other hand, if the WBS does not include all the tasks, some of the tasks may need to be added later in the scope, causing schedule delays.

House Project Work Breakdown Structure

The key to effective resource planning is knowing what skills will be needed. A 100% complete WBS can be very useful as it details all the tasks and by reviewing them, the project manager should identify the required skills. If the project manager is confident that everything is included in the WBS, he can confidently manage changes to the project. A simple rule of thumb might be that if it’s not in the WBS, it’s a scope change.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

If the schedule, resources and scope can be managed, the project budget will be managed automatically.

Creating a WBS depends on the domain or area of ​​the project. A simple approach starts at the top and then works its way down, breaking tasks down into smaller tasks. I find it helpful to ask two questions to determine when you should stop breaking more.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

Break It Down: Using The Work Breakdown Structure To Start Projects

First, will more than one person need to perform the task? If so, you should split the tasks into 2. Second, will the task take more than 5 days? If so, discuss it further. If the task is less than 5 days and can be done by one person, it is manageable. When a task is manageable, it is easier to follow and small enough to fix the ability to work again.

As a project manager, you should know what is actually being done. Understanding the domain is essential. If it’s a website building project, understand the actual tasks that need to be done. It doesn’t have to be a detailed understanding, but it can be getting an overview from someone on the team or referring to similar projects done in the past.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

Step 2: Hold a planning workshop, this is a very effective way to develop a WBS

Solved The Work Breakdown Structure (wbs) Of The Project Has

Meeting with the team and brainstorming can be very useful. Make sure all team members attend this meeting. Start from the main task and work your way down. When you speak to the actual people who will be doing the work, you will always get more details and any risks associated with the task.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

You can use a template or software tool to document captured WBS tasks. While there are many different ways to document a WBS, my preferred method is to use Excel or MS Project. The hierarchy structure is fine for visualization, but I personally find the table approach more useful. You can also use codes for job numbers. But there is no harm in leaving the task numbers as they are. The real value of a WBS is when you can use the information to manage tasks.

It is also important to share the created WBS with all team members. Sharing a documented WBS will ensure the team knows what they are signing up for. It also gives everyone one last chance before the WBS becomes part of your project plan. If possible, review the ETP with a senior manager or MSP who can provide valuable feedback.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

How To Create A Wbs In Excel

Once the WBS team is ready, it’s time to integrate it into the project plan. This is a necessary step because only after the WBS is integrated will you get an accurate picture of your project’s timeline. Integrate major tasks into the WBS as your project milestones.

Excel is the most popular choice for WBS documentation. Our Excel template comes with a glossary that contains additional information about ETP tasks. The template captures the WBS code and task name as basic information.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

You can filter the view to see different levels of the WBS. The WBS dictionary aims to remove any ambiguity of project scope and provide reliable information to enable successful delivery. The WBS dictionary is a valuable communication tool, especially when third parties are involved in providing the scope.

Solved Using The Work Breakdown Structure (wbs) Given Below,

The “Testing” division of tasks requires an understanding of the development team’s coded software testing process and the full scope of testing work. There are several good sources for this information: the SOW, input from the test team, previous similar projects, etc.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

Once you understand what the full scope and process is, it’s a good practice to see if smaller blocks of work have different owners. If so, a new break is needed. For example, let’s look at the “writing scripts” work block: there are 5 modules that have to perform this task, each with its own team leader.

This means that this workblock has 5 different owners and contrasts with practice 3. As a result, this workblock is split into 5 smaller workblocks, one for each module. Since all the scripts are for the same procedure, there is no need to discuss them further.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

All About Work Breakdown Structures (wbs)

To add a WBS column, right-click anywhere in the table header and select “Insert Column” or go to the “Format” ribbon and click the “Insert Column” button.

Then scroll down and look for WBS or type it in the column header. The default column will represent a basic numeric hierarchy, starting with 1 and adding a period and another number for each offset.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

For example, the top summary task will automatically be numbered “1” and the tasks below it will be numbered “1,1”, “1,2”, etc. If one of the tasks has a subtask, there will be an extra dot and number. added

Cost Breakdown Structure Template

For example, “1.2.1” means that the second task from the first summary tasks has a subtask. Each subsequent summary assignment will be in sequential numbering order; for example, the second summary task will be numbered “2” and so on.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

Once a column is added to a table, it can be customized fairly easily. First, go to the “Project” ribbon and then click the “WBS->Define Code” button. The following menu will appear:

The top menu box shows the user a preview of the custom WBS code that will appear on each line. In the second field, the user can add a prefix for each WBS code, for example “Dev” for the development work plan. It is recommended to add a hyphen “-” at the end of the prefix.

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Microsoft Project

How To Create A Work Breakdown Structure In Powerpoint

It is possible in the “Level” area

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