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The WBS Dictionary is a table or spreadsheet that is organized by project task and contains all project planning details.

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Quick reference

Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary

The WBS Dictionary is a table or spreadsheet that is organized by project tasks and contains all project planning details.

When to use

Small/Focused Projects: The WBS Dictionary is an ideal tool for consolidating and communicating the project plan on small or focused projects.  The entire project plan can be presented in one table.

Large/Complex Projects: The WBS Dictionary is useful on large or complex projects for summarizing a portion of the project such as a phase or all the activities required to support a major deliverable.  The technique becomes unwieldy when the table grows to include hundreds of tasks.  At that point project management software should be used, most of which includes a WBS Dictionary display.

Instructions

  • Determine the column headings for documenting the plan. There should be at least one column for the task description, normally at least two columns for the schedule – those being the start and finish date for the task, and at least one column for resources – either personnel or budget.   
  • Determine the column headings for managing the project.  There should be at least one column for current status.  Often there are columns for items such as risk, variance, or relationships with other tasks.
  • List each of the project deliverables.  If the project is managed in phases, list each phase and the deliverables for that phase.
  • List each task that must be accomplished to complete each deliverable under the respective deliverable - use deliverables deployment to assist with this effort.
  • As the project plan is developed, insert the planning information into the appropriate cell in the table.
  • As the project progresses, insert the status information into the appropriate cell in the table.
  • WBS Dictionary:  “A document that provides detailed deliverable, activity, and scheduling information about each component in the Work Breakdown Structure.”  PMBOK® Guide

This definition is taken from the Glossary of the Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017.

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  • 00:05 Hi I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 I'd like to talk with you know about the WBS Dictionary.
  • 00:12 The project management body of knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,
  • 00:15 defines the WBS Dictionary as a document that provides detailed,
  • 00:19 deliverable activity, and scheduling information
  • 00:22 about each component in the work breakdown structure.
  • 00:26 Now in case you're still wondering what the WBS stands for,
  • 00:29 it's the work breakdown structure.
  • 00:31 That's a project management term for
  • 00:33 all the stuff that we have to do in the project.
  • 00:35 It's essentially a complete description of the project scope,
  • 00:38 showing all the deliverables and all the tasks.
  • 00:41 I'll talk more about how to structure the WBS in another lesson.
  • 00:45 The WBS dictionary is often used
  • 00:47 as the detailed description of project scope that is found in the scope baseline.
  • 00:52 The deliverables and
  • 00:53 tasks that we've discussed in other lessons are listed here.
  • 00:56 The WBS dictionary is normally structured as a matrix, or a table, or a spreadsheet.
  • 01:01 Each row is a task, or deliverable, and each of the columns represents some aspect
  • 01:06 of how the work is to be planned, or the status.
  • 01:09 Some of the columns are focused on planning, and
  • 01:11 some on execution and control.
  • 01:14 A WBS dictionary can be a tremendous asset to the project manager
  • 01:19 if the columns are chosen wisely.
  • 01:21 And can be an administrative waste of time with inappropriate or redundant columns.
  • 01:26 The key is to use columns that provide information
  • 01:29 that will help you actually plan and manage the project.
  • 01:32 That typically means at least one column representing each side of the project
  • 01:36 management triangle.
  • 01:38 Those being scope, schedule, and resources.
  • 01:40 I often who have several columns for each side and an additional column for
  • 01:44 tracking the risk and the status.
  • 01:47 You can select whatever columns you find to be most helpful,
  • 01:51 recognizing that the more columns you have, the more insight into the task, but
  • 01:55 also the more work to create and maintain the WBS dictionary.
  • 02:00 Here is some suggestion for columns, I have used each of these from time to time,
  • 02:04 but never all at the same time.
  • 02:06 For scope columns, you might have a deliverable, task, or the quality requirement.
  • 02:11 For schedule columns, you often have the start and end date, and maybe a duration.
  • 02:16 For resource columns, I normally use the Task leader or department, and the cost or
  • 02:21 hours of effort.
  • 02:22 Other columns include things like current status, what are the risks, or
  • 02:26 how this task relates to other tasks.
  • 02:30 This slide shows an example of a segment of a work breakdown structure dictionary.
  • 02:34 You can see this is from a portion of Phase 3 of the project, the concept phase.
  • 02:40 The first column is an identifier column which can be very helpful when
  • 02:44 managing a large project.
  • 02:46 As you can see, we're dealing with a deliverable of a prototype test,
  • 02:49 and we have a number of tasks listed there.
  • 02:51 We also the quality requirements, or definition of done, for
  • 02:55 each of those tasks.
  • 02:57 These comprise the scope columns.
  • 02:59 Next, there's a column for the task leader, and
  • 03:01 that would be a resource column.
  • 03:04 This is followed by several schedule columns, start and finished states.
  • 03:08 Then another resource column with the hours or estimates for the task.
  • 03:11 Notice you can be putting these columns in whatever order you find most convenient.
  • 03:15 Finally, there's a list of risks for the task, and the current status.
  • 03:19 Use columns that make the most sense for your project and
  • 03:22 the way that your managing it.
  • 03:24 In fact it's often used to document the plan and
  • 03:27 communicate that to your team, in addition to being used for tracking purposes.
  • 03:32 When I'm working on a small project, the WBS dictionary may be the only project
  • 03:37 management planning document that I generate.
  • 03:39 It captures the relevant information needed to plan and track the project.
  • 03:43 I will then use this to guide the project and
  • 03:46 update the status column at each team meeting.
  • 03:49 Large projects will often need additional tools
  • 03:51 in order to generate the information.
  • 03:53 But the WBS dictionary can still be that one place where everything
  • 03:57 is consolidated together.
  • 04:01 The WBS dictionary is a great planning and tracking tool.
  • 04:04 It can be a big help for managing your project.

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