The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): Why a WBS is so important?

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is, no doubts, the most valuable project management tool. According with the definition from PMBoK (Project Management Body of Knowledge), the WBS is a deliverable oriented hierarhical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to achieve the project objectives and to create the requested deliverables.

It is a good practice to use a WBS for any project, even if a project is a small one. But why a WBS is so important? What are the benefits of using a WBS for your project?

First of all, through logical decomposition, a project manager or the project team is able to determine all the work which is needed to fulfill the project objectives and to deliver the project deliverables. Through successive decomposition the work is decomposed in smaller, more manageable, work packages. Those resulting work packages can be further used for ressource estimation, scheduling and cost estimation. It is so because it is much easier to estimate the smaller pieces of work. In addition for having a solid ground for your planning, by having a good foundation for your estimations, you can confidently go to your managers to request more ressources, more time and bigger budget.
Furthermore, it helps to understand much better the project. By assesing each work package, and the relationships between them, you can understand the risks for your project. In addition since the WBS covers the entire scope of the project, you can asses correctly the impact of the scope changes.
Not to neglegt are the advantages which a WBS brings to the communication. Stakeholders can easier understand your project having in front a WBS showing the work packages which have to be executed. Furthermore, team members can understand the big picture and their role in the project.
But how can you create a good WBS? What are the best practices for creating it? We will have a look about in the next episode regarding WBS.