Create WBS

Subdivides project deliverables and work into smaller, manageable components, producing the scope baseline. The WBS is the backbone that schedule, cost, and control hang on.

Process Group Planning Knowledge Area Project Scope Management

Creating the WBS decomposes the scope into a hierarchy of deliverables and work packages small enough to estimate, assign, and control. The result — the scope baseline (WBS, WBS dictionary, and scope statement) — is the foundation for scheduling, budgeting, and performance measurement.

Create WBS: key inputs and outputs — The key inputs feeding Create WBS and the deliverables it produces — full ITTOs are listed below.

A useful rule of thumb is the 100% rule: the WBS captures all of the work, and only the work, in scope. Work packages should be small enough to estimate and track, but not so granular that the WBS becomes a to-do list.

Common pitfalls. Organizing the WBS by activities instead of deliverables; decomposing too far or not far enough; and leaving gaps or overlaps that violate the 100% rule and let work fall through the cracks.

Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs

Inputs

Project management plan
Project documents
Enterprise environmental factors
Organizational process assets

Tools & Techniques

Expert judgment
Decomposition

Outputs

Scope baseline
Project documents updates