Work Breakdown Structure Template

Work Breakdown Structure Dashboard (Excel, /b/jSRDO)

Every piece of work in the project, arranged so nothing is missed and nothing is counted twice.

A WBS is the foundation everything else sits on — the schedule, the budget, the earned value. Get it wrong and every number downstream is wrong with it.

What's inside

• WBS hierarchy — levels 1 to 4, with numbering that maintains itself
• Work packages — the lowest level, where work is actually planned and measured
• Rolled-up progress — completion at every level, calculated from the packages below
• Owner assignment — a name against every element
• Cost by package — budget rolling up through the hierarchy
• Dashboard — structure, coverage and progress on one screen

The two rules it enforces

Mutually exclusive: no work appears in two boxes, or budget and progress get double-counted. Collectively exhaustive: anything not in the WBS is not in the project. Most homemade WBSs break both.

Price: A$19.

Work Breakdown Structure Template (Word)

The document version — for when you need the WBS written up with its dictionary rather than held in a spreadsheet.

Includes the WBS structure, a WBS dictionary defining what each element covers and excludes, numbering conventions, and the decomposition rules. It is the dictionary that stops arguments later: when two teams both think a task is theirs, the dictionary settles it.