Outsourcing Work Breakdown Structure
This is a practical guide to building a work breakdown structure for an outsourcing project — a deliverable-oriented decomposition of the whole scope into manageable work packages, adapted to the realities of outsourcing a function to an external provider.
What a Work Breakdown Structure is
A work breakdown structure is a deliverable-oriented decomposition of the whole scope into manageable work packages. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Work Breakdown Structure. On an outsourcing project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for an Outsourcing project
Outsourcing projects live or die on outsourcing a function to an external provider. A well-built work breakdown structure gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how outsourcing projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Top-level deliverables
- Sub-deliverables
- Work packages (8–80 hours)
- WBS numbering
- WBS dictionary entries
Outsourcing-specific considerations
Tailor the work breakdown structure to the risks that most often derail outsourcing projects:
- Knowledge transfer
- Service-level definition
- People impact
Example
On a real outsourcing project, the work breakdown structure would be shaped by outsourcing a function to an external provider. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — knowledge transfer, service-level definition, people impact — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.