Work Breakdown Structure

The work breakdown structure (WBS) breaks down the work into overall areas of responsibility. The WBS is used to get an overview of the work that has to be done in the scope of the entire event and all its stages (research, planning, execution and shut-down). The WBS functions not only as a planning tool, but also as a way for all members of the event organization to align their expectations and divide the work between the various departments. It may seem obvious at first, which tasks belong to which department, but skipping this step can often lead to different departments performing the same tasks without consulting each other.

The picture above shows an example of a WBS for an event. The headlines represent the overall areas of responsibility (in this case, the departments), and the cards in each column represent tasks within each area of responsibility. The sequence of the cards (from top to buttom) represents the sequence in which the tasks need to be performed or at least started. When relevant, a card can also contain a number of subtasks, which gives the option to break down the work even further.