WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES

Summary

Luisa Fernanda Zambrano Silva - 2150503

Carlos Manuel Ramírez Gómez - 2151460

A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the

work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the
required deliverables. The main objective of the WBS is to define and organize the total scope of a
project by describing planned outcomes using and hierarchical tree structure where the first two
levels define a set of planned outcomes that represent 100% of the project scope and subsequent
levels that collectively represent 100% of their parent node.

TYPES OF WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES:

- Verb-oriented WBS: Is a task-oriented WBS that defines the project work in terms of the
action that must be done to produce the deliverable. First word of an element: verb.

- Noun-oriented WBS: Is a deliverable-oriented WBS that defines de project wok in terms of

the components that make the deliverable. First word of an element: Noun

- Time-phased WBS: Breaks the project into major phases instead of task. A “rolling wave”
approach is adopted and only the near-term phase is planned in detail.

WBS DESIFGN PRINCIPLES:

- The 100% Rule: States that the WBS includes 100% of the work defined by the project scope
and captures all deliverable in terms of the work to be completed, including project
management. The sum of the work at the “Child” level must equal 100% of the work
represented by the “partner” and the work represented by the project package must add up
100& of the work necessary to complete the work package.

- Planned Outcomes, Not Planned Actions: The best way to adhere to the 100% rule is to
define WBS elements in term of outcomes or results. WBS that subdivide work by project
phases must ensure that phases are separated by a deliverable.

- Level 2 is the Most Important: It determines how actual cost and schedule data are
grouped for future project cost and schedule estimating.

- The Four Elements in Each WBS Element:

1. Scope of work
2. Dates: Beginning and end
3. Budget
4. Name of the person responsible
 - Mutually-exclusive Elements: There is no overlap in scope definition between two
elements of a WBS

- How Far Down? An effective limit of WBS may be reached when it is no longer possible to
define planned outcomes and the only detail are actions.

- The 40-Hour Rule of Decomposition: There is no need to decompose further when a project
has been decomposed down to an element that has about 40 hours of allocated direct.

- The 4% Rule off Decomposition: A WBS is adequately decomposed when the lowest
element is about 4% of the total project.

- WBS Identification Numbering: Elements are commonly numbered sequentially to reveal

the hierarchical structure.

REFERENCES:

- How to Develop Work Breakdown Structures. Taylor, M