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Work Breakdown Structure Template
A work breakdown structure template gives a detailed breakdown of the hierarchical structure of a complete project based on the task/deliverables which needs to be accomplished by the project team and which are in line with the project objective. Here every work or task has to be planned, identified, and budgeted too.
About the Template
A work breakdown structure template gives a detailed breakdown of the hierarchical structure of a complete project based on the task/deliverables which needs to be accomplished by the project team and which are in line with the project objective. Here every work or task has to be planned, identified and budgeted too. It is one of the most critical deliverables for every project manager because it helps in organising the entire set up of the team into manageable sections or clusters. Tracking a small group is comparatively 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 the key information like name, address and other information. The project owner is the name of the project management firm who has taken up the task of the completion of the assigned project and based on the project completion date the sub task involved in the project must be tracked accordingly. The address part is the postal address of the project management firm on which formal communication can be made in case if need be.
The phone and email are again focussed on the project management firm which is generally required for any communication to be made. The project start date here plays a key role because based on the start date and the end date, all the tasks and sub-tasks involved in the project are further broken down and planned accordingly. The identification, scheduling and budgeting 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, and they make sure that each of the tasks is performed in a well-coordinated manner.
The nest section is related to the client details for which the project is assigned. The client part is the name of the client for whom the project has been taken into consideration. The address part is the postal address of the client on which formal communication can be made in case if need be. The phone and email are again focussed on the client firm, which is generally required for any contact to be made.
Part #2
This section is the most crucial section of every project tracking template because this is where all the information gets noted in. The project manager has to closely track the project based on all the information filled here and plan accordingly. The entire project and its related tasks are broken down into smaller sub-task here and are tracked accordingly. Every subtask is given a title, and further, 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 sub-task has a specific owner or the one who has to take responsibility for it. The start and end date is an essential thing 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 in tack and there are no backlogs involved.
The note section can be used 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 are divided into three parts labelled with numbers 1, 2 and 3. Taking the example of Task 1, we can see there are two sub-tasks involved which have been marked as 1.1 and 1.2. Again task 1.2 has another sub-task under it which is marked as 1.2.1.
Finally, 1.2.1 has two sub-tasks under it which is 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 who the main owners of each task. This generally follows a hierarchy pattern where the key task is assigned to a senior position of an organization. Then the drill-down of the task goes from a high to junior position level accordingly. Similarly, even for main task 2 and 3, the subtasks are shown categorically and follows a similar breakdown to what was shown in the above example of Task 1.
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This 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.
