How_to_use_this_template
📖 How to use this template
A work breakdown structure splits a project into numbered levels until every item is small enough for one person to own and estimate. Each section is a level 1 area, each root task under it is a level 2 component, and each subtask is a level 3 work package. The number at the start of every name tells you where it sits in the tree.
The sample is a building fit-out: three areas, six components and twenty work packages, numbered 1.1.1 through 3.2.5.
- Duplicate this project into your own organization (dropdown next to the project name, then
Duplicate) - Rename the three sections, 1. Internal, 2. Foundation and 3. External, to your own level 1 areas
- Replace the components and work packages with your own, numbering each one as you go
- Fill in Budget and Effort on every work package. Parent rows are containers, so leave them empty
- Set Milestone on each work package to the gate it belongs to
- Link the order of the work. Open a task, set its predecessor, then switch to Timeline view to check the chain reads in the order the work actually happens
The fields
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Budget | The cost estimate for one work package |
| Effort | How loaded the work package is, as a percentage. Green up to 30%, amber to 50%, orange to 80%, red above that |
| Milestone | The gate the work package belongs to: Design, Construction, Inspection or Turnover |
| Risk | 🔴 High at a Budget of $200 or more, 🟢 Low below it. Formula |
Effort answers "how loaded is this", not "how many hours". That is the question worth asking at breakdown time.
Milestone is a Select field that labels the gate. It is separate from Quire's built-in milestones, which mark dates on the timeline, so add those too if you want the gates drawn on the schedule.
Sublists are the cross-cuts
The tree groups work by area. Two sublists cut across it:
🔴 High risk collects every work package the Risk formula flags. Read it before a budget review.
🏁 Turnover gate collects everything with Milestone set to Turnover. It is the handover checklist.
Both ship as fixed lists. To have them maintain themselves, right-click each sublist, choose Edit tasks, and set a filter: Risk is High 🔴 for the first, Milestone is Turnover for the second.
Approval is the sign-off
Work packages carry approval states, so an estimate can be awaiting, approved, changes requested or rejected while the work itself is still To-do. Approval is about sign-off on the estimate. Status is about the work.
Reading it
Switch to Table view. Turn on Sum under the Budget column and the bottom row becomes the project total. Group by Milestone to see what each gate costs, or sort by Risk to bring the expensive work packages to the top.
Adapting it
The three sections are areas of a building. For a product, rename them to something like Design, Build and Launch. For a client engagement, rename them to the deliverables. The fields do not care.
The $200 threshold in Risk suits the small sample figures. Raise it to the amount your team treats as worth a second look by editing the formula on the field itself, not by typing over the value.
If you want subtotals on the level 2 rows, add a Formula field with SUM(descendants.{Budget}). Each component then adds up every work package beneath it.
Two habits keep a WBS honest. Break down until a work package has one assignee and one number, then stop, because a fourth level is usually a schedule pretending to be a breakdown. And renumber when you restructure, since the numbers are the only thing telling a reader how the pieces relate.