Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): How to Make the Good One
Preamble
These days, you rarely see this artifact actually being used in practice (not that I’m exactly tracking the trend). Which is a shame, because a WBS can be really useful. My main gripe? Most people don’t really get what this document is for or what should actually go into it. And even if they do, the end result is usually… let’s say, not very helpful.
Personally, I’m a fan of templates and standards when it comes to business and work. But here, the real value isn’t in the form itself — it’s in the meaning and the approach behind it.
So let’s dig into why this document matters, what it should include, how it can look, and what kind of value it can actually bring.
If you’re curious, here are a few of my other pieces on product management and IT:
- Quantitative research and sample error
- What Makes a Great Product Owner — And How to Hire One
- Get More Offers: How to Craft a CV That Helps You Ace Interviews
Btw, on my Telegram channel I post more often, but those posts are usually shorter and less in-depth than what I share here. If product topics are your thing, you might want to check it out — it’s a good place to catch content in real time.
What is a WBS and why do you even need it?
A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is basically a tool that helps break down a big project into smaller, manageable pieces. Imagine you’ve got a massive task and no clue where to start. A WBS lets you split it up so it feels doable. It’s basically “divide and conquer,” but for projects.
It makes the whole thing more manageable: you see everything that needs to get done, who’s responsible for what, and how much time it’ll take. In short, a WBS is how you turn chaos into a structured puzzle.
This approach helps you see the full scope of work and avoid missing important details. When a task is too big, it’s hard to estimate or control it. But once you break it down, you know exactly which pieces need to be handled and who on the team owns them. That’s especially useful in a team setup, where everyone knows what to do and when. (And if they don’t — well, that’s what the manager is for. You guide, direct, and share the workload.)
It’s most valuable to build a WBS right at the start of a project, before you even finalize the roadmap or set priorities. It gives you a clear view of the entire workload, breaks it into parts, and helps estimate what’s really needed for each task. With that clarity, it’s easier to set priorities and design a roadmap — because you already know which chunks of work are critical and what resources they’ll take.
Now let’s think about what a WBS should actually include to make it as useful as possible.
What does a WBS include — and what problems does it actually solve?
A Work Breakdown Structure covers a lot of day‑to‑day needs in project management. Here are the core pain points it addresses:
- Cleaner team communication. Work is split and labeled by team/owner so it’s obvious who does what.
- Scope clarity & sizing. Breaking work down makes it possible to estimate realistically.
- Structure over chaos. Tasks are organized hierarchically, so the project isn’t just a flat list of 1000 items.
- Lower risk of missing critical work. Decomposition surfaces edge cases and dependencies.
- Prioritization that sticks. A WBS gives you a concrete basis for impact vs. effort calls.
- Schedule & progress tracking. Milestones, statuses, and handoffs become easier to monitor.
- Sharper resource allocation. You can assign the right skills to the right chunks and avoid waste.
Add your own if needed — these are the big ones from my experience, but every org has its quirks.
Now that we’re aligned on outcomes, let’s think through what should actually live inside the WBS — the components, sections, and abstractions that make it useful rather than just “another doc.”
Breaking down what should actually live inside a WBS
You’ve mapped out the pain points, now let’s anchor them to concrete components a WBS needs in order to be useful, not just ceremonial:
- Team ownership
- Each task/work package should be tagged to a team, role, or department.
- This keeps communication clear: who owns what is visible from the start.
- Effort estimates
- Tasks must be broken down into small enough units to be estimated.
- A simple numeric estimate (hours, story points, t-shirt sizes) should be attached.
- Clear task formulation + structure
- Every item should have a concise, unambiguous name + optional description.
- Use hierarchy: break work into levels, from big deliverables down to manageable chunks.
- This hierarchy gives the “map” feeling instead of a raw backlog dump.
- Coverage & completeness
- Decomposition + clear structure naturally reduce the chance of missing critical work.
- Optional: include a “checklist” view to verify that no categories are overlooked.
- Prioritization field
- Each task should carry a priority marker (e.g. High/Med/Low, or RICE score).
- Keeps planning discussions grounded, not gut-feel.
- Timeline & progress tracking
- Add start/end dates or link to sprints.
- A status field (Not Started / In Progress / Done / Blocked) makes control transparent.
- Resource allocation mapping
👉 In practice, a solid WBS doc ends up as a table or hierarchical tree with these fields attached. Depending on tooling (Excel, Jira, Notion, MS Project), you can expand or collapse the hierarchy, but the same backbone applies.
Moving into practice — building a WBS
To make it concrete, I’ll gradually fill out a WBS in Google Sheets and share screenshots along the way. At the end of the article, I’ll also drop a link to the finished template for download (and if you hit any access issues — just DM me, contacts will be at the bottom).
For clarity, let’s take a simple but relatable example: this very Medium Main Page and the features that flow from it.
You can even open this page in another tab and compare the WBS with the actual components and functionality on the page — that way the exercise feels more tangible.
Let’s assume we already have a wireframe of this Medium page from the UX/UI team, along with a rough draft of the functionality. Before jumping into development, we want to figure out:
- How much it’s going to cost
- How long it will take to design, build, and test
- And finally, lock down the scope and priorities
That’s exactly where a WBS comes in handy — it gives us a clear structure to break down the page into manageable chunks, estimate each one, and decide what should go into the first release versus what can wait.
Starting to Build the WBS
Visually, I can break down the wireframe interface into four main sections:
- Header (highlighted in red)
- Sidebar (highlighted in green)
- Quick Topics (highlighted in blue)
- Main Content Area (highlighted in yellow)
So, the WBS starts with these four parts, and then we decompose each one into smaller, detailed tasks.
Let say, at this stage, we only have a wireframe. The final design still needs to be created, which also becomes part of the overall scope.
In total, we need to account for:
- Back-end development
- Front-end development
- Post-development testing
- Final UX/UI design (since right now we only have a wireframe)
- Server setup and deployment (DevOps)
- SEO work (structuring headers, internal linking, and page architecture)
Let’s start by adding all of this into our WBS.
Analyzing the WBS We Built
Our WBS represents a breakdown of the Medium.com homepage development project. The structure is divided into several major epics — Header, Quick Topics, Main Content, Side Bar — along with process-oriented phases like UX/UI, Management, Development, QA + DevOps, and SEO.
Each feature is decomposed into front-end and back-end tasks with best- and worst-case estimates. On top of that, we’ve added process multipliers for design, testing, management, and SEO.
Key Elements of the WBS
- Write Article: Button redirecting to the editor page.
- Notifications: Icon, dropdown list, and full notifications page.
- Profile: Profile button with dropdown menu and account options.
- Search: Search engine, input field, and results page.
- Staff Picks: Blog logo, article title, publish time.
- Recommended Topics: Topic list and recommendation engine.
- Who to Follow: Profile logos, names, titles, and follow button.
- Articles Section: Layout with title, author, avatar, description, publish date, reactions, comments, add-to-favorites, show less, mute author, and report story.
- Other: Infinite scroll implementation.
- UX/UI: Wireframes for desktop & mobile, plus final logo.
- Management: PM effort and business analysis.
- Development: Code review and technical investigations.
- QA + DevOps: Testing, QA cycles, and deployment.
- SEO: Keyword optimization and sitemap setup.
Overall Estimates
- Total Development: 200–300 hours (best vs. worst case).
- Total Process: 386–569 hours.
- Total Project: 586–869 hours.
This WBS allows us to break the homepage into manageable parts, distribute tasks across teams, and make a transparent effort estimate for development, testing, and management. If priorities shift, features can be removed or added while keeping clear visibility into the total effort and resource allocation.
For deeper granularity, individual components (like Story Editor or Search Functionality) can be decomposed on separate sheets and then plugged back into the global WBS. The principle stays the same: start broad, drill down as needed.
In practice, this level of detail is usually enough to guide the team, prioritize effectively, and adjust scope when required.
Conclusion
Using a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is still a powerful tool for planning and managing projects — even though in practice it’s not as widely used as it should be. The main issue is that many teams don’t fully understand why they need it or how to structure it properly. As a result, WBS often ends up as a flat, almost useless list. But the value isn’t in the form — it’s in the approach to decomposition, estimation, and structuring the work that makes a project transparent and manageable.
A well-structured WBS gives you a clear view of the entire workload, defines who does what, and helps estimate both effort and resources. This makes it easier to set priorities, drop less critical tasks, or add new ones while instantly seeing how they affect timelines and allocations. It simplifies planning, improves team communication, and keeps the project under control.
No matter how complex the project, breaking it down into manageable pieces is the key to successful delivery. Use WBS to get visibility into the scope, improve your estimates, and stay on top of progress. The real trick is to adapt the structure to your needs — and not be afraid to go deeper into the details when the project demands it.