Work Breakdown Structure in Construction Management

Ever since the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) was first introduced to Project Management by NASA 1, it has been used in in many different fields of engineering. The Work Breakdown is found to be a very useful tool as projects grow more and more advanced. Projects with huge budgets such as with the Apollo space program, having multiple tasks needed to be complete in order to send humans to the moon. This requires a model that breaks down a goal in to smaller manageable task. This gives a picture of which tasks needs to be done but also an idea of what the cost of the project will be.

This article aims to explain the use of WBS in Construction Management through practical examples from the major Metro Cityring project in Copenhagen city.

• The basics behind a WBS: This chapter will describe the theory behind the WBS.

• Dividing a major project into smaller pieces: This chapter will be a practical application of the WBS, using the Metro Cityring as an example to explain the first steps of WBS.

• Getting an estimation of cost: Here the defined tasked from the previous chapter will be added a cost in which an approximate cost can be found.

• Limitations: No theory without limitations. These will of course be addressed.

References

1 NASA Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Handbook (2010).

2 T.Rajani Devi, V.Shobha Reddy (2012), Work Breakdown Structure of the Project.