Work Breakdown Structure Template
Scope projects and keep track of all the moving pieces with the Work Breakdown Structure Template. Know right away what needs to be done and execute tasks more efficiently.
Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies
About the Work Breakdown Structure Template
Planning complex projects can be challenging. Use the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) template to quickly decompose the project’s total scope, including specific deliverables and activities. This helps with estimating resources and costs, creating a phased schedule of tasks, and managing each phase.
When to use a Work Breakdown Structure Template
A Work Breakdown Structure template is a project management tool that lays out everything a project must accomplish, organizes those tasks into multiple levels, and displays these elements graphically. It’s a deliverable-based approach, meaning you’ll end up with a detailed project plan of the deliverables you must create to finish the job.
Use the WBS template when you need to deconstruct your team's work into smaller, well-defined elements to make it more manageable. The template makes it easy to keep team members informed, identify specific project deliverables, and help you develop a project schedule. The hierarchical structure makes it easier for a project manager to oversee a complex project and make sure every task gets done.
Share your expertise on Miroverse 🚀
Publish your own template and help over 60M+ Miro users jump-start their work.
What are the 4 elements of the Work Breakdown Structure template?
1. Hierarchy.
Each Work Breakdown Structure is hierarchical. That means every “child” on the graph has a hierarchical relationship with its parent task. When you add up all the “child” elements, it’ll give you a clear picture of the parent task.
2. 100% rule.
While every Work Breakdown Structure is a little different, they all follow the 100% rule. Every level of the graph must make up 100% of the parent level, and it must have at least two “child” elements.
3. Mutually exclusive elements.
Every element at each level of a WBS template has to be mutually exclusive. That means there can’t be any overlap between deliverables or work. Enforcing mutual exclusivity helps cut down on miscommunication and avoid duplicate work.
4. Outcome-oriented.
The Work Breakdown Structure is fundamentally a deliverable-oriented system. That means your graphic depiction must focus on the outcomes rather than the activities required to produce them. A good rule of thumb is to describe elements using nouns rather than verbs.
How to Create a Work Breakdown Structure with Miro in 3 Steps
Get started by selecting the Work Breakdown Structure Template and adding it to your board. Then, follow these steps to fill it in:
1. Set goals & objectives
First, scope the entire project and make sure you understand the goals and objectives. That means determining what your project team is trying to accomplish with the project, how it fits into the broader goals of your organization.
2. Lay out deliverables
Next, catalog all of the major high-level deliverables of the project. These will be the second tier of the structure, and will be comprised of sub-projects that work towards the overall goals & objectives laid out in the first step.
3. Break deliverables into individual tasks
Finally, break those high-level deliverables into smaller pieces for a third level of activities that need to be done to complete the project. These are the specific daily sub-tasks required to get the project off the ground and ultimately completed.
If you'd prefer to start from scratch, Miro's diagramming functionalities make it the perfect WBS creator to visualize a project's components.
Work Breakdown Structure Example
As a product manager, you probably need to organize projects and align different teams across product launches and updates.
In Miro’s WBS Template, you can see the product launch steps divided into departments:
Research
Design
Development
QA
Measurement
We know that every organization is different, and for that reason, you can easily customize the Work Breakdown Structure Template to meet your specific project's needs.
To complete your WBS template, you can add the tasks under each area or department. It can be user research, product development, performance tracking, etc. Once you are done, you will be able to see the whole process at a glance.
What is included in a work breakdown structure template?
There are typically three levels to a work breakdown structure: first, overall goals and objectives, with deliverables as the next level, and finally individual tasks as the final level.
Why use a work breakdown structure?
A work breakdown structure is a great way to break down an overall project into distinct individual tasks, along with aligning each of those tasks with priorities, goals & objectives. Get started with Miro's Work Breakdown Structure template.
How do you create a work breakdown structure?
You can create a WBS template in 3 simple steps: 1. Set goals and project scope 2. Set deliverables in the second tier of the structure 3. Break deliverables into individual tasks and assign them
What are the benefits of a work breakdown structure?
The WBS template can help you visualize your project needs and outcomes easily and better manage your team capacity and resources.
Get started with this template right now.
Weekly Project Status Report Template
Works best for:
Project Management
The Weekly Project Status Report Template is essential for maintaining clear and consistent communication within a project team. It provides several benefits, including enhanced communication among all stakeholders. By standardizing the way project updates are shared, the template ensures that all team members, from the project manager to individual contributors, clearly and consistently understand the project's progress. This common platform for reporting eliminates misunderstandings and ensures everyone is aligned on project objectives, milestones, and current status. The template's intuitive design makes it easy to update and share, streamlining the communication process, which is crucial for the successful delivery of any project.
Bull's Eye Diagram Template
Works best for:
Diagrams, Project Management, Prioritization
When you’re a growing organization, every decision can feel like it has make-or-break consequences—which can lead to decision paralysis, an inability to prioritize, inefficient meetings, and even low morale. If that sounds like you, put a Bull’s Eye Diagram to work. True to its name, a Bull’s Eye Diagram uses a model of concentric circles to help companies establish priorities, make critical decisions, or discuss how to remove or overcome obstacles.
Fishbone Diagram Template
Works best for:
Operations, Diagrams, Workflows
What is the best way to solve any problem your team faces? Go straight to the root. That means identifying the root causes of the problem, and fishbone diagrams are designed to help you do it best. Also known as the Ishikawa Diagram (named after Japanese quality control expert Kaoru Ishikawa), fishbone diagrams allow teams to visualize all possible causes of a problem, to explore and understand how they fit together holistically. Teams can also use fishbone diagrams as a starting point for thinking about what the root cause of a future problem might be.
Kanban Framework Template
Works best for:
Kanban Boards, Agile Methodology, Agile Workflows
Optimized processes, improved flow, and increased value for your customers — that’s what the Kanban method can help you achieve. Based on a set of lean principles and practices (and created in the 1950s by a Toyota Automotive employee), Kanban helps your team reduce waste, address numerous other issues, and collaborate on fixing them together. You can use our simple Kanban template to both closely monitor the progress of all work and to display work to yourself and cross-functional partners, so that the behind-the-scenes nature of software is revealed.
Production Timeline Template
Works best for:
Project Management
The Production Timeline Template is a visual roadmap, systematically outlining the sequence of activities, tasks, and milestones of a project over a defined timeframe. This graphical representation ensures clarity and direction for project teams, allowing everyone to see the project's entirety in one consolidated view. One of its standout benefits is fostering team alignment. By visually laying out tasks and deadlines, team members clearly understand their roles, responsibilities, and timelines, ensuring harmonious collaboration and reducing potential miscommunication or overlaps. This alignment streamlines the workflow and significantly enhances overall project efficiency.
Gantt Chart Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Mapping, Roadmaps
Simplicity, clarity, and power — that’s what make Gantt charts such a popular choice for organizing and displaying a project plan. Built upon a horizontal bar that represents the project progress over time, these charts break down projects by task, allowing the whole team to see the task status, who it’s assigned to, and how long it will take to complete. Gantt charts are also easily shareable among team members and stakeholders, making them great tools for collaboration.