Getting Started with WBS
Build a breakdown from an empty project — first phase, activities, tasks, dates and effort — then move the work along and commit a baseline.
This guide takes a project from nothing to a breakdown you can actually run the site from. It follows the shape of the work: the phases of the job, the activities inside each phase, and the tasks the crew is given.
- Create the first phase — the breakdown starts with a Phase at the top level
- Add activities under the phase, then tasks under each activity
- Give the tasks dates, effort and an assignee — four of the seven views stay blank without dates
- Move work along with the status chip; the workflow only offers legal moves
- Set a baseline once the plan is agreed, so the timeline can draw planned against actual
Before You Begin
What you need
- A project — the WBS is per project, not per organisation
- WBS in the project sidebar opens the page
- If the project is empty, the page offers Create the first phase rather than a generic add button
Create the first phase
On an empty project the page shows Nothing here yet and a single button, Create the first phase. Click it — or use Add Item in the page header at any time — and the Create Work Item drawer opens.
Because the project has no items yet, Type is set to Phase and Parent reads Top level. Give it a title — "Substructure", "Superstructure", "MEP First Fix" — and click Create. Titles are limited to 300 characters.
Break the phase into activities
Press Space on the phase to open the peek panel and choose Add activity from the actions menu at its top — in the Table view the same menu sits in the actions column at the right edge — or use Add Item and pick the phase as the Parent. The drawer shows parents as WBS code · title, so you can tell two similarly named rows apart.
You do not choose a type when you add in place — it comes from the position. An item added under a Phase is an Activity; one added under an Activity is a Task. If you pick a type the project has no legal parent for, the drawer names the parent it needs — Add a Phase first, for an Activity — and keeps Create disabled rather than letting you create something orphaned.
Add the tasks
Tasks are what the crew is given, so this is where most of the detail goes: an Assignee, a Priority (Critical, High, Medium, Low or None — it defaults to Medium), a Start Date and a Due Date, comma-separated Tags, and a Description.
If you are entering a lot at once, switch to the Table view and use the ghost Add a work item row under each parent. It creates the type its position implies, so you can type straight down a list without opening the drawer each time.
Add effort so the workload reads correctly
Open a task — click Open at the end of its row — and fill in Est. Hours under Planning & Effort. The Workload view compares the effort allocated to each person against their working day, and it can only do that for items that carry hours and an assignee.
Only the bottom of the tree counts towards workload. A parent's effort is its children's, so counting both would count the same work twice.
Move the work along
Click the status chip on a row in the Table view — or press Space on any row and click the status chip in the peek panel — and a Move to menu opens listing only the moves that are legal from where the item currently sits. A Task, for example, goes Not Started → Ready → In Progress, then on through construction completion, inspection and QC.
Some moves are guarded. Completing a Phase while an activity under it is still open opens a dialog naming the rule — "All activities within this phase must be complete" — with a View items button that takes you to the work that is holding it up.
Commit the plan with a baseline
Once the programme is agreed, open the item's actions menu and choose Set baseline. On anything with children the option reads Set baseline (with sub-items) and takes the whole subtree in one go, because a planner signs off a phase rather than a row.
From then on the Timeline draws the baseline under the live bar, so slippage is visible without anyone keeping a second copy of the dates.
What to Do Next
- Work through the rest of the views in The Seven Views
- Read how the numbering behaves when you move things in Work Items & WBS Codes
- Learn the five workflows in Statuses & Workflows
Questions
Can I change an item's type after I've created it?
No. The type is fixed once the item exists. If you picked the wrong one, create it again with the right type and delete the old one.
I put an item under the wrong parent. How do I move it?
On the Outline view, drag the row, or choose Move to… from its menu. Its WBS code changes to match. An item can only go under a parent of the right type: a Task under an Activity, for example.
Does someone get told when I assign them a task?
Yes. They get an in-app notification and an email as soon as the item is saved with them as the assignee. Assignments are a critical notification, so they can't switch those two off.
What happens to the items under something I delete?
They're kept and move up one level, to the deleted item's own parent. Only the item itself is deleted, and the delete message says so.