Work Breakdown Structure Template
A work breakdown structure template gives a detailed breakdown of the hierarchical structure of a complete project based on the tasks/deliverables which need to be accomplished by the project team and which are in line with the project objective. Every work or task has to be planned, identified, and budgeted.
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About the Template
A work breakdown structure template gives a detailed breakdown of the hierarchical structure of a complete project based on the tasks/deliverables that must be accomplished by the project team and which are in line with the project objective. Every work or task must be planned, identified, and budgeted. It is one of the most critical deliverables for every project manager because it helps organize the team’s entire setup into manageable sections or clusters. Tracking a small group is easier than tracking a whole project. Thus, it proves to be very useful to all project managers.
How to Use the Work Breakdown Structure Template?
Part #1
This section generally captures the details of the entire project based on key information like name, address, and other information. The project owner is the name of the project management firm that has taken up the assigned project task. Based on the project completion date, one must track the sub-task involved in the project accordingly. The address part is the postal address of the project management firm on which one can communicate formally in case need be.
The phone and email again focus on the project management firm, which is generally required for any communication. The project start date here plays a key role because, based on the start date and the end date, all the tasks and subtasks involved in the project are further broken down and planned accordingly. The identification, scheduling, and budgetingBudgetingBudgeting is a method used by businesses to make precise projections of revenues and expenditure for a future specific period of time while taking into account various internal and external factors prevailing at that time.read more of each task are essential as this will let the project manager assign a deadline for each task and monitor if the project is maintaining its overall deadline. The entire task is assigned to individual or group owners, ensuring that each task is well-coordinated.
The next section is related to the client details for which assigns the project. The client part is the name of the client for whom the project is considered. The address part is the client’s postal address on which formal communication can be made in case of need. Finally, the phone and email again focus on the client firm, which generally requires any contact.
Part #2
This section is the most crucial section of every project tracking template because this is where all the information gets noted. The project manager must closely track the project based on all the information and plan accordingly. The entire project and its related tasks are broken down into smaller sub-tasks here and tracked accordingly. First, every subtask is given a title. Then, the tasks under each sub-tasks are tracked individually.
The task structure goes according to the hierarchy, like 1, 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.1.1, and so on. The description column gives the description of each task and the sub-tasks involved within it. Each task or subtask has a specific owner or the one who has to take responsibility for it. The start and end dates are essential to track because this is what the project manager is interested in to see each of the tasks and the sub-tasks involved are well on track, and there are no backlogs involved.
One can use the note section to make certain notes by the task owner regarding some backlogs or comments about some incidents or resource allocation, or it can be anything relevant and useful for the task. Here, the main tasks divide into three parts labeled with numbers 1, 2, and 3. Taking the example of Task 1, we can see two sub-tasks involved, marked as 1.1 and 1.2. Again task 1.2 has another sub-task under it which marks as 1.2.1.
Finally, 1.2.1 has two sub-tasks, further marked as 1.2.1.1 and 1.2.1.2. We can also see each task and sub-task has an individual assigned to the main owner of each task. It follows a hierarchy pattern where the key task is assigned to an organization’s senior position. Then the drill-down of the task goes from a high to a junior position. Similarly, even for main tasks 2 and 3, the subtasks are shown categorically and follow a similar breakdown to the above example of Task 1.
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This article has been a guide to the Work Breakdown Structure Template. Here, this free downloadable template gives a detailed breakdown of the hierarchical structure of a complete project based on the task/deliverables.
Also, you can download and use this template in Excel, PDF, or ODS format.
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