How to Create Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Primavera

Work Breakdown Structure or WBS is a workgroup that describes the project scope along with the work packages that need to be completed in a project.

The WBS is divided into sub-divisions and work packages so that the scope of work in the project can be more easily managed, estimated, planned and assigned to the people or departments responsible for managing it.

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6 Main Steps to Create a WBS

There are six main steps in creating a WBS, namely:

Determining the scope, goals and objectives of the project: You can see the scope and objectives of the project in the project documents.

Identify the project statement from concept to a statement describing the work’s completion. You can also define work categories into work areas that can be managed and tracked.
List all things related to work deliveries. Create a structure that depicts the project deliverables that should be delivered.
Divide the scope of work down to the level of activities that need to be carried out, then collect the list of activities that need to be carried out into the work package group. Work Package is the smallest WBS level before the activity level.
Tailor each work package to the project team according to the responsibility and resources required.

In Primavera, the WBS is created separately from the activity page. You can create a WBS by going to the WBS page first. Meanwhile, in MS Project, the WBS and activities are on the same worksheet.

Creating a WBS on a separate page in Primavera has the advantage of making the WBS easier to manage. You can just create the list or chart of the WBS, which can be converted into a PDF or hardcopy page if needed.

You can also easily manage progress, including performance calculations and other data per WBS.

Meanwhile, WBS management in MS Project is more suitable for projects that do not prioritize the need for in-depth project analysis. However, in-depth analysis can also be done with a higher level of complexity and may require additional tools (not as efficient as using Primavera).

Advantages of Creating a WBS in Primavera

Some of the advantages gained in creating and using a WBS in Primavera are:

Easy to create and Manage

You can go directly to the WBS page (Project -> WBS), create a WBS and manage the WBS separately or combine the calculations into projects (optional).

Many options for WBS configuration

In Primavera, the options for WBS configuration have more criteria than other project management applications, MS Project, for example.

You can configure the type of progress update, Earned Value Method calculation, financing and so on at the WBS level.

Activity grouping options can be based on WBS or other groupings that can be customized using Activity Codes

You can use other groupings using Activity Code if you have multiple criteria to display your Project with more than 1 WBS model. For example, you want to group your activities based on BoQ and work Phase. So you can display activity workgroups based on two or more different structures.

Etc

Creating a WBS in Primavera is a step taken before entering activities. You need to create it manually in Primavera and the WBS cannot be imported from Excel or MS Project (without the activities).