What Is a Work Breakdown Structure in Project Management?
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A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a fixture in classic project management methodology and systems engineering that breaks a project down into a hierarchy of deliverables and tasks. Itâs a simple, yet methodical, way of organizing and understanding your project scope in smaller, manageable components.
Essentially, using a work breakdown structure enables you to take a top-down look at your project and break it into the tasks and subtasks that will get you to completion. Itâs a helpful tool that defines a detailed cost or time estimate and provides guidance for schedule development and control.
Why use a work breakdown structure?
Thereâs no doubt about it: Estimating projects can be confusing and somewhat difficult. But creating a project estimate doesnât have to cause you heartburn. Asking questions, analyzing needs, and breaking your scope down into chunks can help.
Creating a work breakdown structure for any plan or set of tasks helps you get granular about the work that needs to be done on any given project. If you estimate your projects based on unitsâwhether itâs weeks, days, or hoursâusing a work breakdown structure will help you understand very quickly if your estimate will exceed the intended budget or deadline.
How to create a work breakdown structure to estimate projects
When youâre comfortable with the overall process of creating a work breakdown structure, youâll be able to adapt the practice to any projectâfrom moving your house to building a complex database with 75 offshore teams. Thatâs right, the work breakdown structure will be your friend.
But before you go off and start creating a WBS (and on-point estimates), letâs walk through a process that will help ensure a solid, workable estimate.
Step 1: List your project's high-level deliverables
If youâve got a project scope, getting started on your work breakdown structure should be easy.
Donât have a scope? Turn right around and talk to your clients or boss about the scope. Starting any project without a scope is dangerous because it sets the stage for what will be delivered and when.
First, sit down with your team, and list out what youâll need to deliver to meet your projectâs end goal. For instance, if youâre building a new website, your deliverables might include:
- Sitemap
- Wireframes
- Page designs
- Front-end code
- Back-end code
Be sure to include all tasks and that youâre not leaving anything out. For instance, if youâre working on a website redesign project, have you accounted for content? If you miss a deliverable now, youâll regret it later.
Thatâs why listing things out as a team is so helpful. A team conversation not only ensures all your bases are covered. It also helps you set expectations for who will be responsible for deliverables and tasks, all while engaging the team on the overall process of the project. See, youâre winning already! đ
Step 2: Break each deliverable down into tasks
Once youâve identified the high-level deliverables for your project, itâs time to take a deeper look into what actually needs to be done within each individual deliverable.
This isnât just a simple exercise where you say, Who will do this, and how long will it take? It goes much deeper than thatâand thatâs a good thing because thatâs how youâll be able to create a better estimate.
As you dig into each high-level deliverable, ask your team (or yourself):
- What needs to be done to create this deliverable?
- What other related project tasks will contribute to successfully completing this deliverable?
- What are the task requirements?
- Are we cutting any corners here? (Make sure you list everything and anythingâdonât cheat yourself!)
As you conduct this exercise, keep in mind that you truly want to list every possible task that could go into a high-level deliverable. Remember, the point here is to account for all time so you can create a reasonable estimate. You wonât be able to do that if youâre not thinking it through properly.
Using the website redesign as an example, hereâs how you might break up the âSitemapâ deliverable:
- Review current site
- Test the current structure with 5 site users
- Review test findings
- Organize the sitemap in a spreadsheet
- Review the first low-fidelity version with the team
- Revise the structure using the teamâs input
- Create a visual version of the sitemap
- Annotate sections
- Write description of the new sitemap
- Present the sitemap to clients
- Review client feedback
- Implement feedback
- Deliver v2
- Conduct meeting with clients
- Finalize sitemap
This list of tasks is an estimate for all of the work that will need to be done in order to get to a finalized sitemap.
This might not be the way youâd do it, and thatâs just fine. When you sit down with your team to discuss these tasks, just be sure youâre operating with a common understanding of how things are doneâor that youâre at least talking through the process you want to enact.
No matter what, listing out every single detail will help you spell out the effort it will take to complete the deliverable.
Step 3: Get granular with subtasks
Thatâs right: You want to make your work breakdown structure as detailed as possible. The only way to do that is to examine every task youâve identified and list out subtasks. Itâs all about elaborating effort and determining the work that will need to be done to successfully complete the deliverable.
Itâs a process that takes time and thought, but if you make an investment to do this, youâll find less room for missed expectations and budget overages in the long term. So, take the next step and detail out what will go into each task.
Using the website redesign as an example, hereâs how you might break down the âTest the current structure with 5 site usersâ deliverable even further:
- Recruit users
- Schedule sessions
- Write test script
- Conduct 5 sessions
- Compensate users for time
- Write up findings and recommendations
This one task is proof that any single line item in a scope can be an expensive one! Not only did this example include 6 subtasksâit also included a line item that requires payment to a party outside of the project.
Youâre going to want to know about any expenses before scoping your project, and your clients will too. Be sure to account for them early on so nothing comes as a surprise when youâre knee-deep in your project.
Step 4: Format your WBS and estimate the work
Traditionally, youâll find work breakdown structures presented in flowcharts that resemble website sitemaps. That format works well because it shows a hierarchy of tasks and is easily numbered and referred back to.
But, some people like to list them out on whiteboards or put them in spreadsheets. The format isnât what matters hereâitâs the completeness and accuracy of the tasks included. You can create your work breakdown structure in any format that makes you comfortable. (Weâve included some examples below to get you started.)
When youâve listed all of your tasks and subtasks in a format that makes sense, youâll want to review it again and make sure youâve included all of the possible tasks and subtasks.
Once thatâs confirmed, go through the list and discuss each task in terms of level of effort. This could be in minutes, hours, days, weeksâit really depends on how granular you need to get and how your organization estimates projects. Assigning an increment of time to each task will help you add up a total estimate of time (and possible cost) and sets you up to create a project plan when youâre ready for that step in your project.
When youâre done, youâll know if youâre in scope, out of scope, or actually operating on another planet. Itâs true: You might run this exercise and find youâve articulated too much time or effort to do everything within the scope of the project. The good thing is, youâve set the baseline for whatâs needed, and as a group, you can scale back on tasks to fit the scope or the timeline (and help yourself avoid the awkward deliverable due date dance).
Managing project scope with a quick work breakdown structure
Sometimes youâll get requests to add to your project scope. In that case, you'll need a quick (but solid) estimate to float by a team or a clientâjust to ensure youâre covering your bases with that new thing. Maybe you donât have the time to pull the team together to run through the steps above, but using a work breakdown structure in this instance to map out a quick set of deliverables can be extremely helpful.
In fact, creating a quick work breakdown structure on your own can be extremely helpful when a client tells you they have X dollars to spend or X days to get something done. If you map out your tasks to get to an estimate, you can easily explain what can and cannot be done. And, if your estimates are too high, you can lean on your work breakdown structure to negotiate the scope down quickly.
For example, if I had to cut down on cost/time on building that sitemap, I could likely remove the âTest the current structure with 5 site usersâ step from my âsitemapâ deliverable (though that could be risky and I might not want to do that). Use the work breakdown structure to your advantage this way, and you'll not only create a project estimate that maps to a specific budget, youâll work out a solid set of project requirements.
Work breakdown structure examples
Now that weâve talked about how to use a work breakdown structure to estimate your projects and manage project scope, letâs look at some simple work breakdown structure examples to jumpstart your ideas.
Work breakdown structure flowchart example
Hereâs an example of a work breakdown structure in flowchart form. This format works great for simple projects that donât necessarily need an estimate. In this flowchart example, weâve shown you how to use a work breakdown structure to plan a vacation.

Just keep in mind that a flowchart can get messy if your project breaks down into too many tasks and subtasks. If youâve got a complex project on your hands, consider a different format.
Work breakdown structure list example
We took time to design this list example, but your work breakdown structure can just as easily be scribbled down on your favorite notepad or whiteboard. Hereâs how you might use a work breakdown structure to estimate your time for an upcoming move.

Work breakdown structure spreadsheet example
If your project involves a long list of tasks and subtasksâand you want to capture both time and budget estimatesâa spreadsheet might make sense for you.
In this work breakdown structure example, weâve used a simple spreadsheet to estimate cost and effort for a website. You can add columns and rows to fit your needs and even set up formulas that calculate cost based on the estimated time and hourly rate.
Download our free Excel work breakdown structure spreadsheet template!

Work breakdown structure gantt chart example
Want to get one step ahead of your project plan? Try setting your work breakdown structure up as a gantt chart!
Hereâs an example of how weâve used task groups and subgroups to break a website build down in TeamGantt.

Itâs easy to add or remove tasks to fit your scope, and you can use TeamGanttâs hourly estimating feature (available in the advanced plan only) to plug time estimates in and watch the numbers add upâno calculator needed!
When youâre ready to assign and schedule work, all your tasks will already be there waiting for you. Your team can track time right from the app, enabling you to monitor hours to keep the project budget in check.
Importing your work breakdown structure into TeamGantt
Did you know you can transform your work breakdown structure into a gantt chart? Itâs true!Â
Simply import your work breakdown structure as a CSV file. We even created a free template you can use to import your work breakdown structure into TeamGantt faster.Â
Download our free work breakdown structure gantt chart template to get started!
Once youâve downloaded the Excel template, hereâs how to take it from blank slate to full-on project gantt chart:
- First, make sure you have access to a TeamGantt account that allows for more than 1 project. Don't have an account? No problem! Start a free trial with the plan that's right for you! (Pro tip: Select the Advanced Plan trial if you want to include Estimated Hours in your import.)
- Copy/paste the blank table to a clean worksheet, and complete your work breakdown structure with all the project details.
- Save your new work breakdown structure document as a .CSV file.
Finally, follow these instructions for importing a project via CSV.
Break it down now!
As with any tool or methodology, you need to do whatâs right for your project, your team, and you. Maybe the steps and examples outlined here wonât work for you. Thatâs okay!
If you use the principles that the work breakdown structure encompassesâlisting deliverables and tasksâto create your own estimate, youâll find a level of accuracy you may not have found in the past. And, if you hang on to those estimates, you can use them on future projects as well. Thatâs a bonus!
Go from project estimate to plan in no time flat
Want to save time and effort on your next project? With TeamGantt, you can turn your project estimate into a full-blown plan without the tedium.
Youâll have all the features you need to ensure projects finish on time and under budgetâfrom drag and drop simplicity and team collaboration to customizable views and workload management. And it all comes with a simple and intuitive interface anyone can use.