<p>Here’s a quick truth. Before writing this article, I stumbled on <a href=”https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html”>Akin’s laws</a>, which aptly summarize work breakdown structures. The fun “law” reads: <em>It’s called a Work Breakdown Structure because the Work remaining will grow until you have a Breakdown, unless you enforce some Structure on it. </em>This law is clear and true!</p> n<p></p> n<p>Jokes aside, while studying to acquire my project management degree, I found an instructive note in the PMBOK guide. The <a href=”https://www.pmi.org/standards/pmbok”>guide</a>, which is a go-to source for project managers, warns that “no project should be without a WBS.”</p> n<p><a class=”cta_button” href=”https://www.hubspot.com/cs/ci/?pg=4322f21a-0140-4b58-8407-1b384a0cb29c&pid=53&ecid=&hseid=&hsic=”><img class=”hs-cta-img ” style=”height: auto !important; width: auto !important; max-width: 100% !important;border-width: 0px; /*hs-extra-styles*/; margin: 0 auto; display: block; margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px” alt=”Download Now: Free Project Management Template” height=”59″ width=”459″ src=”https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/53/4322f21a-0140-4b58-8407-1b384a0cb29c.png” align=”middle”></a></p> n<p>Without a work breakdown structure (WBS), your projects have a high chance of exceeding their deadlines and budgets, and not meeting stakeholder expectations. You want none of these.</p> n<p>So, in this guide, I’ll lean on my experience as a project management professional to share what I’ve learned about work breakdown structures. You’ll also get insights from industry experts who will help you learn about WBS.</p> n<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p> n<ul> n <ul> n <li><a href=”#what-is-a-work-breakdown-structure”>What is a work breakdown structure?</a></li> n <li><a href=”#elements-of-work-breakdown-structure”>Elements of Work Breakdown Structure</a></li> n <li><a href=”#benefits-of-using-wbs-in-project-management”>Benefits of Using WBS in Project Management</a></li> n <li><a href=”#types-of-wbs-in-project-management”>Types of WBS in Project Management</a></li> n <li><a href=”#how-to-use-a-wbs-for-managing-projects”>How to Use a WBS for Managing Projects</a></li> n </ul> n</ul> n<a></a> n<p style=”font-weight: normal;”></p> n<p>According to <a href=”https://www.amazon.co.uk/Project-Management-Achieving-Competitive-Advantage/dp/0133798070″>Jeffrey Pinto</a>, an author and professor, the WBS is a planning mechanism for knowing the interrelationship of various activities in a project. In its simplest form, the WBS looks like you see in the <a href=”https://www.hubspot.com/business-templates/work-breakdown-structure”>template</a> below:</p> n<p><img src=”https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/work-breakdown-structure-2-20250112-9151701.webp” style=”margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; display: block; width: 650px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;” title=”” alt=”example of a work breakdown structure”></p> n<p style=”text-align: center; font-size: 12px;”><em><a href=”https://www.hubspot.com/business-templates/work-breakdown-structure”>Source</a></em></p> n<a></a> n<h2>Elements of Work Breakdown Structure</h2> n<p>Based on what I learned from Pinto, every WBS has at least four levels in <a href=”https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/project-management-basics”>project management</a>.</p> n<p>However, if your project is complex, you’ll have more sub-deliverables, and your work package will continue increasing.</p> n<p>Here are the four levels of a WBS for a simple project.</p> n<table style=”width: 100%;”> n <tbody> n <tr> n <td style=”width: 26.3594%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p><strong>Level</strong></p> </td> n <td style=”width: 22.9243%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p><strong>WBS Term</strong></p> </td> n <td style=”width: 50.7163%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p><strong>Description</strong></p> </td> n </tr> n <tr> n <td style=”width: 26.3594%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Top-Level/Level 1</p> </td> n <td style=”width: 22.9243%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Project</p> </td> n <td style=”width: 50.7163%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>The overall project under development</p> </td> n </tr> n <tr> n <td style=”width: 26.3594%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Level 2</p> </td> n <td style=”width: 22.9243%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Deliverable</p> </td> n <td style=”width: 50.7163%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>The major project components</p> </td> n </tr> n <tr> n <td style=”width: 26.3594%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Level 3</p> </td> n <td style=”width: 22.9243%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Sub-deliverable</p> </td> n <td style=”width: 50.7163%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Supporting deliverables</p> </td> n </tr> n <tr> n <td style=”width: 26.3594%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Level 4 (Activity)</p> </td> n <td style=”width: 22.9243%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Work package</p> </td> n <td style=”width: 50.7163%;” colspan=”1″ rowspan=”1″> <p>Individual project activities</p> </td> n </tr> n </tbody> n</table> n<p>To illustrate, I will explain these levels with the WBS for a marketing conference.</p> n<h3>Top-Level/Level 1</h3> n<p>The top level of the WBS covers the entire project scope. It’s also the final deliverable, which outlines what I want to accomplish. For this project, the top level is a “marketing conference plan.”</p> n<p><img src=”https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/work-breakdown-structure-3-20250112-5141700.webp” style=”margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; display: block; width: 650px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;” title=””></p> n<h3>Level 2</h3> n<p>The second level of the WBS outlines the major project components. It also reduces the project scope into units that serve as deliverables.</p> n<p>Deliverables include features for products or phases for tasks. My project is a series of eight tasks. You’ll notice I numbered each deliverable at this level (and for the lower levels).</p> n<p>This is a deliberate element, which is absent from some WBS I’ve seen.</p> n<p><img src=”https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/work-breakdown-structure-4-20250112-4204333.webp” style=”margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; display: block; width: 650px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;” title=””></p> n<p><strong>Pro tip: </strong>Numbering a work breakdown structure helps with clarity, organization, and tracking. With numbering, I have a logical and visual way to know the relationship between deliverables, sub-deliverables, and work packages. This makes it easy to find a work element, especially for a large project.</p> n<h3>Level 3</h3> n<p>The third level of the WBS is the sub-deliverable. Each sub-deliverable is a component of the main deliverable you will provide to your stakeholders.</p> n<p>When considering an item as a sub-deliverable, a consideration is the ease of managing it. For instance, the sub-deliverable, researching potential venues (2.1), fits this bill.</p> n<p>Why? It is manageable. I can assign some hours to it. The cost is minimal.</p> n<p><img src=”https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/work-breakdown-structure-5-20250112-534737.webp” style=”margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; display: block; width: 650px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;” title=””></p> n<p>If you’re making your own WBS, definitely use a <a href=”https://www.hubspot.com/business-templates/work-breakdown-structure”>template</a> to get you started.</p> n<h3>Activities</h3> n<p>The last level of the WBS is activities. Think of activities like atoms. They are the smallest elements within a sub-deliverable or deliverable.</p> n<p>For instance, to deliver the event planning and strategy, I will need to execute the following activities:</p> n<ul> n <li>1.1 Define objectives and goals</li> n</ul> n<ul> n <li>1.1.1 Conduct a kickoff meeting with stakeholders</li> n <li>1.1.2 Draft a list of measurable goals</li> n <li>1.1.3 Finalize objectives in a project charter</li> n</ul> n<ul> n <li>1.2 Identify target audience</li> n</ul> n<ul> n <li>1.2.1 Conduct market research</li> n <li>1.2.2 Create audience personas</li> n <li>1.2.3 Validate personas with stakeholders</li> n</ul> n<ul> n <li>1.3 Develop event theme and branding</li> n</ul> n<ul> n <li>1.3.1 Brainstorm theme ideas</li> n <li>1.3.2 Design logo and branding materials</li> n <li>1.3.3 Approve theme and branding with stakeholders</li> n</ul> n<ul> n <li>1.4 Set a budget and allocate resources</li> n</ul> n<ul> n <li>1.4.1 Identify key expense categories</li> n <li>1.4.2 Create an initial budget plan</li> n <li>1.4.3 Get budget approval from stakeholders</li> n</ul> n<ul> n <li>1.5 Create project timeline and milestones</li> n</ul> n<ul> n <li>1.5.1 Draft a detailed project schedule</li> n <li>1.5.2 Identify key milestones</li> n <li>1.5.3 Share the timeline with the team</li> n</ul> n<a></a> n<h2>Benefits of Using WBS in Project Management</h2> n<p>While learning about the WBS, some of my peers didn’t appear convinced. Some argued that it’s great on paper but unapplicable in real-life situations. For others, its benefits outweigh the flawed thinking of not having one.</p> n<p>So, how does a WBS actually help?</p> n<h3>A WBS prevents scope creep.</h3> n<p>Every stakeholder is on the same page when there’s a WBS.</p> n<p>Without one, stakeholders can continue adding to the project until it becomes unmanageable. Once this happens, you’ll need to revisit your timelines, milestones, budget estimates, risks, etc. I wouldn’t like this to happen, especially when handling multiple projects.</p> n<p>In the waterfall environment characterized by a sequential approach to project execution, the benefits of a WBS in avoiding scope creep will be undebatable.</p> n<p>However, in Agile environments without fully defined end products, some experts argue stakeholders will change their minds on what they want, when, and why.</p> n<p>While this negates the value of a WBS, <a href=”https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/retq3o/comment/ho9sl4s/?utm_source%3Dshare%26utm_medium%3Dweb3x%26utm_name%3Dweb3xcss%26utm_term%3D1%26utm_content%3Dshare_button”>one expert</a> argues that Agile teams shouldn’t use the excuse of agile to not plan and risk having scope creep.</p> n<p>“While I get that a full waterfall style WBS would be necessary in a construction project, they [agile teams] can’t go complete no estimates on projects with inter-team dependencies, multi-fiscal-quarter delivery dates, and anything more than five team members.”</p> n<p>“At a minimum, all requirements of the end product should be documented, a roadmap of all major deliverables should be communicated, they should be doing some equivalent of a WBS for the next two weeks of work and ideally up to the end of the next milestone, and a rough outline of how everything else is going to come together,” they add.</p> n<h3>A WBS aids project budget estimation.</h3> n<p>A work breakdown structure isn’t just a planning tool — it helps with budgeting. By breaking my project into detailed activities, the WBS makes it easy to assign budgets.</p> n<p>Budget overruns remain a pervasive issue in project management. In a <a href=”https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/software-projects-dont-have-to-be-late-costly-and-irrelevant”>BCG survey</a> of 403 respondents, 49% said over 30% of their organization’s technology development projects exceeded their budgets. Tech projects use Agile because of the flexibility and iterative progress it offers.</p> n<p>While I understand that a pre-established budget runs against the Agile mindset, incorporating a WBS into sprint planning helps. Assigning budgets at the sprint level allows teams to remain adaptable while maintaining financial discipline.</p> n<h3>A WBS captures all work packages.</h3> n<p>I’ve found that creating a WBS forces me to think critically about every aspect of a project. From major milestones to granular deliverables, each work package is accounted for. This not only helps visualize the scope of the project but also ensures nothing is overlooked.</p> n<p>But before penning down every package, talking to stakeholders is vital. Not doing so is one reason for the recent and monumental failure of the High-Speed Rail 2 in the United Kingdom.</p> n<p>According to <a href=”https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/214518/economics/hs2-failure-why-is-uk-so-bad-at-building-infrastructure/”>Tejvan Pettinger</a>, an economist, “[High-Speed Rail 2] risks being a £50 billion white elephant and a monument to poor planning.”</p> n<p>Pettinger didn’t suggest that the HS2 team didn’t have a comprehensive WBS — however, he makes a verifiable claim of constant changes to the project scope.</p> n<p>And as we’ve established, when this happens, the project gets derailed on almost all fronts and the team has to return to the drawing board.</p> n<a></a> n<h2>Types of WBS in Project Management</h2> n<p>There are two types of WBS:</p> n<ol start=”1″> n <li>Deliverable-based work breakdown structure.</li> n <li>Phase-based work breakdown structure.</li> n</ol> n<p><img src=”https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/work-breakdown-structure-6-20250112-8576716.webp” style=”margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; display: block; width: 650px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;” title=”” alt=”types of wbs in project management”></p> n<h3>Deliverable-Based WBS</h3> n<p>A deliverable-based WBS gets tangible outcomes (deliverables) for stakeholders.</p> n<p>What I like about this WBS is its focus on “what to do” over “how to do” a task. As such, this WBS is easy to modify, simple for estimating cost, and provides a complete view of the total work scope.</p> n<p>The deliverable-based WBS has applications in scenarios such as:</p> n<ul> n <li>Projects with clear outputs such as organizing an event or constructing a building.</li> n <li>Client-focused projects like specific marketing campaigns or design projects.</li> n <li>Projects requiring detailed scope management such as launching a new product.</li> n</ul> n<h3>Phase-Based WBS</h3> n<p>A phase-based WBS organizes work according to the sequential stages of the project lifecycle (initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, closure). With this WBS, I must detail the process for achieving specific deliverables.</p> n<p>One of the simplest ways to explain a phase-base WBS is to consider a research writing project. Without doing an ethics review, I can’t interview participants to get insights for writing my final report.</p> n<p>With the phase-oriented WBS, I like the clear insights it gives into elements that hinder the project’s progress. This WBS is also great for providing a roadmap of “when to do” tasks, ensuring each stage builds logically on the previous one.</p> n<p>The phase-based WBS is suited for:</p> n<ul> n <li>Process-driven projects such as implementing a business system or conducting research and development.</li> n <li>Standardized lifecycle projects like those following Waterfall methodology.</li> n <li>Long-term projects with sequential progression, such as multi-year infrastructure builds or strategic planning initiatives.</li> n</ul> n<a></a> n<h2>How to Use a WBS for Managing Projects</h2> n<p>A WBS is excellent for chopping complex projects into the smallest bits. But beyond its core function of visualizing the project scope, here’s how to use a WBS:</p> n<h3>1. <strong>Assign responsibilities.</strong></h3> n<p>The WBS makes it easy to assign deliverables or tasks to team members. This helps everyone know what they’re responsible for and keeps things from getting duplicated.</p> n<h3>2. <strong>Estimate time and resources.</strong></h3> n<p>I use the WBS to figure out how long each task will take and what resources are needed. This makes it easier to create a realistic schedule and budget.</p> n<h3>3. <strong>Facilitate communication.</strong></h3> n<p>The WBS is a great way to keep everyone on the same page. It helps align team members and stakeholders on the project’s scope, responsibilities, and timelines.</p> n<h3>4. <strong>Manage risks.</strong></h3> n<p>I look for potential risks in each WBS element and create plans to address them before they disrupt the project.</p> n<h3>5. <strong>Integrate with project management tools.</strong></h3> n<p>I’m a fan of tools like Trello and Asana. Inputting the entirety of my WBS into these tools makes it easy to help keep track of tasks, manage resources, and generate reports.</p> n<a></a> n<h2><strong>Final Thoughts</strong></h2> n<p>The work breakdown structure is a cornerstone that provides clarity on projects.</p> n<p>While I had learned about WBS during my studies and applied it in my professional life, diving into its nuances and reflecting on its use in real-world scenarios gave me a renewed perspective.</p> n<p>The WBS is essential not just for planning and organizing a project, but for identifying risks and maintaining control over scope and budgeting.</p> n<p>A useful learning for me was the debate about the relevance of WBS in Agile. A product backlog in Agile projects is like a WBS, where epics or features are managed in sprints.</p> n<p>Without putting thought into the work items, whether in Agile or Waterfall, the project is heading for the rocks.</p> n<p>Bottom line: Successful projects start with a well-thought-out plan, and that plan begins with a work breakdown structure.</p> n<div> n <p>Not sure if you prefer to embed a table or just use a screenshot so I gave you both options for these 3 instances (namely because the third is LARGE)</p> n</div> n<img src=”https://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=53&k=14&r=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.hubspot.com%2Fmarketing%2Fwork-breakdown-structure&bu=https%253A%252F%252Fblog.hubspot.com%252Fmarketing&bvt=rss” alt=”” width=”1″ height=”1″ style=”min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; “>