Breaking Down The Work
A typical Work Breakdown Structure “decomposes” items, or breaks them down from a high level feature or deliverable, into smaller Work Packages or User Stories that a person can work on.
But once you’ve decomposed those deliverables, you need to add information to them to make them meaningful. And you do that with a WBS Dictionary.
What Goes In A WBS Dictionary?
A WBS Dictionary lists our deliverables, the work packages in those deliverables, and then any additional project information we need. It will usually include:
- A Unique ID
- Deliverable Name
- Work Package Name
- Description
And then Project attributes, such as:
- Resources Required
- Cost Estimates
- Duration Estimates
- Dependencies (what needs to be completed first)
- Quality Requirements (tasks or acceptance criteria)
And lastly, the people involved, such as:
- Who the item is assigned to
- Who approved or signed off on the item.
Having all this information at a glance makes it easier to understand your project and see what is needed.
See more Project Management Picture Concepts:
- How The Cost of Quality Increases On Your Project
- How to Measure Business Value for Your Project (NPV, ROI and more!)
- Scrum Roles & Responsibilities
- The Change Control Process in Project Management
- Prototypes in a Waterfall or Agile Project
- Agile Estimating Techniques – Planning Poker and More
- Good versus Bad Project Management
- Benchmarking: How To Do It
- Project Management Office (PMO) Types
- Project Benefit Types – Tangible and Intangible
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