Work package

The work package is a part of the work breakdown structure. It is a self-contained service to be provided within a project. Within a work package it is defined which person(s) are to perform the task by what time and with what effort. Thus, work packages can also be seen as mini-projects within a larger project.

Properties of work packages

Work packages are the smallest units within a work breakdown structure and are used (in addition to sub-projects) for structuring. In contrast to sub-projects, work packages are not subdivided further. They are characterised by a number of other features:

are assigned to exactly one project phase or one (sub-)project.
comprise a concrete, self-contained task.
have a clearly defined start and end time.
are assigned to exactly one responsible person (who, however, does not necessarily have to work on it alone).

Common mistakes with work packages

Work packages should be defined carefully and be comparable with each other. Here in particular there are a number of pitfalls to be aware of:

If work packages are defined too small, one quickly loses the overview. If they are too large, planning becomes coarse-grained and error-prone.
If work packages do not have a clearly defined responsible person, they will not be completed or will be completed several times.
If the individual operations or results of a work package are not clearly defined, problems occur with the following work packages.

Define the scope of work packages

In order to be able to meaningfully monitor the progress of work packages in terms of project controlling, the scope of a work package should be coordinated with the reporting cycle. For example, if the project participants meet weekly for a meeting, the individual work packages should ideally not last longer than a week. In this way, deviations can be identified quickly and resolved in a timely manner.

A simple rule of thumb is that work packages should have a scope of about 5 to 20 person-days and cover about 5 % of the total project scope. However, this is only a rough guide; deviations may be appropriate in individual cases. Project planning tools can help to manage work packages efficiently with good task management.

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