A work breakdown structure (WBS) is an elaboration of the project
activities required to achieve the project's objectives. A WBS defines the
total work scope of the project. Each descending level represents an increasingly
detailed definition of the project work.
A WBS:
- defines the hierarchy of deliverables
- supports the definition of all work required to achieve an end objective
or deliverable
- provides a graphical picture or textual outline of the project scope
- provides the framework for all deliverables across the project life cycle
- provides a vehicle for integrating and assessing schedule and cost performance
- provides association to the responsible stakeholders
- facilitates the reporting and analysis of project progress and status
data
- provides a framework for specifying performance objectives
WBS elements
A WBS has a tree structure and can
include the following elements:
- Iteration: Iterations are specific to Agile projects, and refer to time-boxed
phases of the project lifecycle.
- Summary task: A summary task comprises a series of tasks. It is usually
used to denote a project phase or iteration.
- Milestone: A milestone is the end of a stage that marks the completion
of a work package or phase, typically marked by a high level event such as
completion, endorsement or signing of a deliverable, document or a high level
review meeting. A milestone is a zero duration event. It is usually used
as a control check point or phase gate, and for scheduling methodologies such
as Critical Path Method (CPM).
- Task: A task is a single project activity and represents the lowest-level
of work breakdown for a project deliverable.
- Change requests: Used to track requests for change during the course of
a project's execution. You can add tasks to a change request.
- Issues: Created during the execution phase of a project to communicate
the nature of impending or actual problems for which no concrete solution
has been proposed. You can add tasks to an issue.
- Defects: Used to record and track bugs and bug fixes. You can add tasks
to a defect.
Each WBS element has attributes such as start and finish dates,
duration, and so on. The attributes for the WBS elements are defined during
WBS creation. Default values are supplied for each attribute when you create
the WBS tree. You can modify the default attributes. For a list of attributes
for each WBS element, see WBS element attributes.
A typical project looks like this:
Table 1. Simple WBS - My Project - First summary task
- Second Summary Task
- Task three
- Task four
- Change Request
- Change Request task 'a'
- Change Request task 'b'
- Milestone
- Third Summary Task
- Defect 20
- Defect task 201
- Defect task 202
- Defect 22
- Defect task 220
- Defect task 222
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