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Work Breakdown Structure

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a tool used to divide a project into smaller, more manageable components. It breaks the project down into deliverables, tasks, and subtasks. The WBS helps estimate costs, schedules, and risks, and assigns responsibilities. It provides a clear scope and understanding of the project for stakeholders. A WBS diagram graphically shows the project components in a hierarchical structure from the overall project down to individual tasks.

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Ellie Annelle Lazaro
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150 views

Work Breakdown Structure

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a tool used to divide a project into smaller, more manageable components. It breaks the project down into deliverables, tasks, and subtasks. The WBS helps estimate costs, schedules, and risks, and assigns responsibilities. It provides a clear scope and understanding of the project for stakeholders. A WBS diagram graphically shows the project components in a hierarchical structure from the overall project down to individual tasks.

Uploaded by

Ellie Annelle Lazaro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MANUEL L.

QUEZON UNIVERSITY

School of Architecture

Topic 3 : Work Breakdown Structure

Construction Management
Specialization 2 (Construction Management)

Submitted by:
Lazaro, Wellie Annelle F.
16-00074

Submitted to:
Ar. Rax Casupanan
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the division of complex projects in to a
simplified manageable chunk of work so that the project can be easily supervised. It
is an accurate and readable project organization that shows the assignment of
responsibilities to the project team. The project milestones and control points are
indicated. It helps to estimate the cost, time and risk. It is an illustration of the project
scope, so the stakeholders can have a better understanding.

Construction of a WBS
The start of deriving a work breakdown structure is identifying the main
deliverables of a project. This important step is usually done by the project managers
and the subject matter experts involved in the project. Once this step is completed,
the subject matter experts start breaking down the complex tasks into smaller chunks
of work. Task can be breakdown into different levels of unit. It can be break down into
a high-level task into ten sub-tasks while another can detail the same high-level task
into 20 sub-tasks.
There are a few "rules" used for determining the smallest task chunk. In "two
weeks" rule, nothing is broken down smaller than two weeks worth of work. This
means, the smallest task of the WBS is at least two-week long. 8/80 is another rule
used when creating a WBS. This rule implies that no task should be smaller than 8
hours of work and should not be larger than 80 hours of work.
There are many forms to display WBS. Some use tree structure to illustrate the WBS,
while others use lists and tables. Outlining is one of the easiest ways of representing
a WBS.
Following example is an outlined WBS:

Source: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/work_breakdown_structure.htm

The important goals of WBS are it gives visibility to important work efforts and
risky work efforts. It illustrates the correlation between the activities and deliverables
and it also shows clear ownership by task leaders.
WBS Diagram
The project scope is graphically expressed in the WBS. The diagram starts with
a graphic object or a box at the top, this represents the entire project. Then, there are
sub-components under the box that represents the deliverables of the project. Under
the deliverables, there are sub-elements that are listed. These sub-elements are the
activities that should be performed to achieve the deliverables.
Following is a sample WBS diagram:

Source: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/work_breakdown_structure.htm
Reference:
‘Work Breakdown Schedule’, Tutorials Point, retrieved at
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/work_breakdown_structure.ht
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