Appendix K

Web Design Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Example

Web Design Project WBS

This example is of a WBS to design, build and deploy a commercial Internet Web site that sells the organization's own products within one country. The high-level phases of the development lifecycle are placed at Level 1 of the WBS. Major work within that phase is further elaborated within each area. As with all WBS examples, different branches of a WBS can be decomposed to different levels of detail. This WBS is generic and as such serves as a WBS template which would be customized for specific project instance. Additionally, both outline and tree-structure views of this WBS are provided for comparison.

1 WBS for Web Design Project

1.1 Planning

1.1.1 Product Definition

1.1.2 Stakeholder Approval

1.2 Definition

1.2.1 Requirements Development

1.2.1.1 Business Requirements Development

1.2.1.2 System Requirements Development

1.2.2 Conceptual Design Development

1.2.2.1 Conceptual Data Design

1.2.2.2 Conceptual Process Design

1.2.3 Architectural Design Development

1.2.3.1 Web Design Methods Evaluation

1.2.3.2 Web Design Method Selection

1.2.4 Bill of Materials (BoM) Creation

1.2.5 Resource Procurement

1.2.5.1 Human Resources Procurement

1.2.5.2 Hardware Procurement

1.2.5.3 Software Procurement

1.2.5.4 Telecommunications Procurement

1.3 Construction

1.3.1 Detailed Design Development

1.3.1.1 Data Design

1.3.1.2 Business Logic Design

1.3.1.3 User Interface Design

1.3.1.4 Internal Design Standards Consultation

1.3.1.5 Industry Design Standards Consultation

1.3.2 High-Level Test Plan Development

1.3.3 System Components—Code, Unit Test

1.3.3.1 Database Components

1.3.3.2 Code/Logic Components

1.3.3.3 Web GUI Interface Components

1.3.4 System Installation (Configure)

1.4 Testing

1.4.1 Testing Execution

1.4.1.1 System Test

1.4.1.2 User Acceptance Test

1.4.1.3 Performance Test

1.4.2 Analyze Defects/Correct

1.4.3 Production Readiness Verification

1.5 Deployment

1.5.1 Transition

1.5.1.1 Support Personnel Training

1.5.1.2 Support Procedures Documentation

1.5.1.3 Software

1.5.1.4 Hardware

1.5.2 Legacy System Decommissioning

1.6 Project Management

Tree Structure View

One of the most common ways to represent a WBS is the graphic Tree Structure, or Organizational Chart structure in which each “child” element is shown as a box with a line connecting it to the “parent” element of which it is a component. This representation makes very explicit the way in which the project and the subordinate components are hierarchically decomposed into smaller and smaller elements. The example illustrates horizontal distribution for WBS levels. The phases are placed vertically in top down sequence. This approach works well for WBS with variable decomposition of each phase. Two techniques are illustrated in Figures K1 and K2 to show how paper position (landscape or vertical) can change the WBS. In the horizontal landscape the boxes for Level 3 had been omitted for additional clarity to the graph.

Note: PMI Project Management Standards Open Working Session volunteers at PMI's ’99 Seminars & Symposium originally created this WBS example. It has been subsequently been updated as part of the development of this release of the Practice Standard.

This WBS example is illustrative only and is intended to provide guidance to the reader. No claim of completeness is made—for any specific project, the example may be complete or incomplete. All examples reflect the quality principles expressed in this Practice Standard. As expressed in the PMBOK® Guide—Third Edition “the project management team is responsible for determining what is appropriate for any given project” (Project Management Institute 2004).