Setting up a work breakdown structure (WBS)
To set up a work breakdown structure:
- On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click Work Breakdown Structure. The Work Breakdown Structure dialog appears.
The work breakdown structure, which is a hierarchical tree structure of WBS codes, is displayed in the main pane of the dialog. New projects will have an initial WBS code, with the WBS code taken from the project's short name and the WBS name taken from the project's long name. You can specify the separator that appears between each element of the WBS path by using the Path separator field on the Format tab of the Options dialog. - To add a new WBS code, select the WBS code below which you want to add a new code and click Add. The code that you select will be the 'parent' code of the new WBS code. For example, if you want to create a new WBS code directly beneath the top-level code, select the top-level code and click Add.
- Enter an alphanumeric identifier for the code in the WBS code column.
- Enter a descriptive title for the code in the WBS name column.
- Continue adding WBS codes to the work breakdown structure as required.
You can change the position of WBS codes in the work breakdown structure:
- Select a WBS code and click Up or Down to change its position vertically in the work breakdown structure.
- Select a WBS code and click Indent to make the selected code a child of the WBS code that is above it in the work breakdown structure.
- Select a WBS code and click Outdent to move the selected code out of its parent WBS code.
If a WBS code has any subordinate WBS codes in the work breakdown structure, these 'child' WBS codes are moved along with the selected WBS code.
To delete a WBS code from the work breakdown structure, select the code you want to delete and click Remove. If the WBS code has any subordinate WBS codes in the work breakdown structure, these 'child' WBS codes are also deleted.
A project's work breakdown structure is displayed in the project view. You can navigate through the hierarchy of the work breakdown structure in the project view in the same way that you navigate through the project hierarchy of
Once you have set up a work breakdown structure in a project, you can apply WBS codes to the tasks within the project to define and group the tasks. Note that WBS codes are assigned to new tasks automatically if you insert a new task into a view that is sorted by a WBS attribute.
Specifying hierarchy appearance settings for a work breakdown structure
You can specify hierarchy appearance settings for a work breakdown structure. These are used when you create and apply sorts/groups that are based on a WBS attribute to colour the subheadings that appear above each sorted group of tasks to indicate the sort/group criteria. For example, if you are sorting/grouping on WBS code, the subheadings will display the WBS code that has been assigned to each sorted group of tasks.
You can specify a different subheading appearance for each level of the WBS hierarchy. For example, if the hierarchy of a work breakdown structure comprises six levels, you should define six different subheading appearances: one for each level.
To specify hierarchy appearance settings for a work breakdown structure:
- Click Hierarchy Appearance within the Work Breakdown Structure dialog. The Hierarchy Appearance Properties dialog appears. You can also access this dialog by right-clicking an element of the work breakdown structure in the project view and selecting Appearance.
Each row in the grid on this dialog represents a level of the WBS hierarchy. For example, the appearance settings you define for the first row apply to the top level of the work breakdown structure, the settings you define for the second row apply to the second level of the WBS, and so on. - Click Add to a new row to the grid.
- Click in each column of the grid to specify the font colour, fill colour and font settings to apply to sort/group subheadings for each level of the WBS.
- Click OK to close the dialog and return to the Work Breakdown Structure dialog.