In Oracle Primavera Cloud, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) allows you to organize your project activities with an outline. Whereas the activities represent the individual bits of work for the project, the WBS represents the broader phases of work. Typically, the WBS displays as a hierarchy representing different phases of work. Displayed as grouping bands on the table, you can use the WBS to group activities by their associated phase. Creating a WBS before adding activities is beneficial, as it will provide an outline that you can then fill in with individual tasks.

Although it is not required to create a Work Breakdown Structure for every project, we recommend creating one regardless. It will help make your project much easier to navigate through. Additionally, it is typically a contractual requirement to create and maintain a WBS.

In this article, we will cover how to create a Work Breakdown Structure in Oracle Primavera Cloud. Before creating a WBS, you will want to first have a project created – you can find instructions on how to do that here.

Accessing the WBS Page

First, open the desired project using the Object Selector. You can create a WBS for both new and imported projects.

Within the Main Menu, select Schedule > WBS.

​This will take you to the WBS page. The purpose of the WBS page is to create an outline that will then display on the Activities page. On the Activities page, we will be able to see the WBS layers we create here as colored grouping bands, grouping activities together. It’s useful to create a WBS before adding activities, as these grouping bands will act as an outline. They will display each phase of the project schedule, making it easier to break down the individual activities.

The WBS will be pre-populated with one root node, representing the project as a whole. You can define the WBS for your project by adding child layers to this root layer.

Adding WBS Layers

To add a new layer to the WBS, select the Add button in the top toolbar.

This will create a child layer to the project root  layer. Each WBS layer will be given a default Code and Name, but you will generally want to adjust these fields to differentiate each layer. 

The WBS Code is a unique identifier for the WBS item – no two layers can have the same code. By default, the WBS code will be the project’s code followed by a ‘.WBS#’, with the # indicating the layer’s position in the hierarchy. The WBS Name is best used as a descriptor for the item. By default, the WBS name will be the same as the WBS Code. You can adjust both the Code and the Name by double clicking in the cell within the table and typing in a new one.

You can also assign a WBS Manager, who is the user responsible for managing the WBS layer. The person who created the project will automatically be added as the manager, you can adjust this by selecting the … button.

In the Select Manager window, choose a new user from the list and press Select.

After adding the first WBS layer, you can build your hierarchy by adding either sibling or child layers. Selecting the Add button again will create a sibling layer – or a layer in the same hierarchical level as the layer before it.

To add a child layer to an already created layer, select the gear icon next to it and press Add Child WBS. This will create a WBS layer below it within the hierarchy. Typically, child layers give more definition to the parent layers above. For example, If I had a parent layer for Preconstruction, I would add child layers for the subphases within it – such as Mobilization and Procurement.

Continue to add layers to the WBS in this manner until you have a full outline for the project. Oracle Primavera Cloud supports WBS hierarchies with up to 50 levels.

Moving WBS Layers

You can move WBS layers around in the hierarchy by selecting the gear icon to the left of the layer. Here, you’ll find options to Move Left, Move Right, Move Up or Move Down. Move Left will outdent the layer, turning a child layer into a sibling layer by bringing it to the same hierarchical position as the layer above it. On the other hand, Move Right will indent the layer, turning a sibling layer into a child layer, by moving it to a hierarchical position lower than the layer above it. Move Up and Move Down will not change the hierarchical order of the layer, but will simply move it above or below within the WBS list.

If you have a hard time creating the WBS hierarchy as you go, you can always create your WBS as a simple list. Once created, you can then use these Move options to adjust the hierarchy as needed.

Displaying the WBS on the Activities Page

With your WBS created, you’ll want to add it to the Activities page to act as an outline. This will assist with adding activities to the project, as you can break down the WBS phases into identifiable tasks. To navigate to the Activities page, select the Main Menu > Schedule > Activities.

Depending on the View that you’re using, the WBS may already be displaying on the Activities page. If it is not displaying, you can turn it on by adjusting the Grouping settings within the current View. To adjust the View, select the View dropdown menu in the top toolbar and select Manage Views.

In the Manage Views window, select the Grouping tab at the top of the screen.

Under Group By, you can choose how you want to group activities. This will determine what grouping bands appear on the table. To add grouping bands for the WBS you just created, select WBS from the dropdown.

If you created your WBS before adding activities to the project, you will also want to take a look at the Hide If Empty option under Band Options. With Hide If Empty selected, grouping bands will only display if they have activities below them. In this case, we created our WBS before adding activities, so none of the layers will have any. Because we want to use the WBS as an outline to help add activities, deselect Hide If Empty.

In the upper right hand corner, select the Apply button to apply the View changes.

The Work Breakdown Structure will now display on the Activities screen as different colored grouping bands. Using this structure as an outline, you can begin breaking down these WBS phases into the activities that will make up the project. It will now be much easier to organize your activities as you add them to the schedule.

Summary

After creating a project in Oracle Primavera Cloud, you should first set up A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS is a hierarchical structure representing the phases of your project. Whereas the activities represent the individual pieces of work, the WBS represents the type of work. Typically, a WBS breaks a project down into phases – such as Preconstruction and Construction. It’s useful to create a WBS before adding activities – as it can display as an outline to assist with the process. Using the WBS page, you can add layers and sublayers to build a hierarchy. Once created, you can display this hierarchy on the Activities screen by adjusting the View. Although it is not mandatory, it’s highly recommended to create a Work Breakdown Structure for your project. This will make it much easier to navigate through time and manage activities as they start and finish.

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Lauren Hecker is an Oracle Primavera Cloud, Primavera P6, and Microsoft Project instructor who teaches onsite and virtual scheduling courses. To see her next open enrollment course, please visit our calendar. To schedule an onsite or custom course, please contact us!