Website Development Work Breakdown Structure
This is a practical guide to building a work breakdown structure for a website development project — a deliverable-oriented decomposition of the whole scope into manageable work packages, adapted to the realities of designing and building a new website.
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 a website development project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for a Website Development project
Website Development projects live or die on designing and building a new website. 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 website development 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
Website Development-specific considerations
Tailor the work breakdown structure to the risks that most often derail website development projects:
- Scope creep from stakeholder requests
- Content readiness delays
- Browser/device compatibility
Example
On a real website development project, the work breakdown structure would be shaped by designing and building a new website. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — scope creep from stakeholder requests, content readiness delays, browser/device compatibility — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.