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What Role Does a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Play in Defining Project Responsibilities?
Learn what a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) does in project management: breaking deliverables into manageable components to clarify responsibilities, reduce confusion, and improve task assignment.
Question
During a project to develop a new software application, the project manager notices that tasks are being assigned inconsistently, leading to confusion among team members about their responsibilities. To resolve this, the project manager suggests creating a work breakdown structure (WBS). What role will the WBS play in this situation?
A. It will list all risks associated with the project for mitigation planning.
B. It will break the project deliverables into smaller, manageable components.
C. It will define the project schedule and estimate resource allocation.
Answer
B. It will break the project deliverables into smaller, manageable components.
Explanation
A work breakdown structure (WBS) decomposes the project’s total scope (deliverables) into smaller, clearer pieces of work, making it easier to understand what must be produced and to assign consistent responsibilities at the right level of detail. By clarifying deliverables and their components, the WBS reduces confusion about ownership and helps the team align on what work exists (and what doesn’t), which supports more consistent task assignment and accountability. Source citations can’t be retrieved in this turn.