WBS: Best Practices

Project Management for Non-Project Managers

I’ve summarized everything you’ve learned about Work Breakdown Structures in this series and created a downloadable checklist[1]. If you find it helpful, please share! If you have a suggestion, leave a comment.

Before You Start

• Business goals clear and agreed
• Project scope defined
• Success defined
• Stakeholders and their expectations are clear
• Constraints and assumptions identified
• Similar projects, templates, and lessons learned reviewed and applied
• Key high-level risks initially identified and documented

Creating and Verifying

• Work is broken down into logical packages
• Each package is doable and assigned
• All work included with no duplicates
• All work is relevant to the project success
• Every package has a duration and cost

While Executing

• WBS is actively used and regularly updated
• Critical path is know and regularly updated
• Risks are actively monitored and managed
• Clear communication across teams facilitated by the WBS
• Progress is regularly monitored
• WBS adapted based on project realities

Keep this checklist handy when you’re creating or validating a work breakdown structure. It doesn’t cover everything — dependencies (results that feed into other work), sequencing (putting the work in order), and scheduling (adding start and end dates) are all separate activities that will be covered in later series. But this is a good start, and the beginning of all the other activities.

---

---

[1] If you haven’t checked out The Checklist Manifesto it’s worth it. Checklists are a great tool for your project management toolbox