# Break the work down from deliverables > Deliverables first, tasks second: a tree that covers all the work of the physics launch and nothing twice, flattened into a list with owners and effort ranges. - Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md) - Module: Scope: what is in and what is out - Lesson 5/32, ~22 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/break-the-work-down ## Sixty lines and no tree **Alex Tutor:** Late October at Klasna: Leo has signed your one-page brief for the physics launch, opening 1 February 2027 within 600,000 UAH. This module turns the brief's in list into work: what exactly, who owns it, how big it is, and what goes first if it doesn't fit. **Danylo:** I've started a task list: test database, landing copy, the subject dropdown in booking. Sixty lines already. **Sofia:** Vira and Roman have their own lists too. Do I merge them into one? **Alex Tutor:** Merged task lists give you a long list with holes and duplicates. Start from the other end: **deliverables**, the things the project hands over that someone can check. Tasks come second. **Alex Tutor:** Why not just merge? > **Exercise:** Danylo, Vira and Roman each have their own task list. Why not just merge the three lists into the project plan? **Alex Tutor:** A **work breakdown structure** is a tree: the project at the top, deliverables below it, and under each the pieces of work small enough to estimate and give to one owner. > **Exercise:** Which of these is a **deliverable** of the physics launch, not a task? ## Deliverables first **Sofia:** From the brief: curriculum, practice sets, tutor pool, diagnostic test, landing page and booking by subject, launch communications. **Alex Tutor:** A good first level. Now one level down for each. The curriculum splits into five units, from mechanics to atomic physics. Stop where one person can own a piece and estimate it. **Vira:** The tutor pool is three things, not one: sourcing and screening by Roman, demo lessons with me, then onboarding by Roman. **Danylo:** The test is a question bank from Vira, then the build on the platform. Landing page and booking are two separate pieces, both mine. **Alex Tutor:** The tree is made of nouns, things you can check. Verbs live one level lower, on the owner's board. > **Exercise:** Put these from the top of the physics breakdown tree to the bottom. ## All the work, and nothing twice **Alex Tutor:** Now the check that makes a tree useful, the **100% rule**: the tree covers all the work of the project, and every piece of work appears in it once. **Sofia:** All of it? Then my own work too: the plan, the weekly status, the risk list. **Alex Tutor:** Yours too. Project management is a branch with its own effort. Leave it out and your days come from nowhere. **Vira:** My units already include practice problems, and there is a separate branch for practice sets. Is that twice? **Alex Tutor:** If the same problems sit in both, yes: someone counts the effort twice, or each author thinks the other one writes them. Give each piece one home. **Danylo:** And who sends the launch email? It is on nobody's list. **Alex Tutor:** That is the other failure, a missing branch. Without launch communications the landing page waits for visitors who never come. > **Exercise:** Each option describes a feature of a first draft of the physics tree. Which of them break the **100% rule**? Select all that apply. ## How deep to go **Sofia:** So how far down do I go? Down to Danylo's sixty lines? **Alex Tutor:** Down to pieces one person owns and can estimate in days, roughly up to two weeks of effort each. Below that, the owner keeps the task list, not you. **Danylo:** So my sixty lines stay on my board, and the tree says "diagnostic test on the platform, owner Danylo". **Vira:** And what is out? Should the tree show the olympiad course we dropped? **Alex Tutor:** No, the out list in the brief does that. The tree is the in list made concrete: what isn't in the tree isn't in the project until Leo decides otherwise. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a good breakdown goes down to every task of an hour or two, so that the project lead can track each one. ## From tree to list **Alex Tutor:** Last step: flatten the tree into a deliverable list. One line each: the deliverable, one owner, an effort range in person-days, and what it needs first. **Sofia:** A range, not one number? **Alex Tutor:** Optimistic, likely and pessimistic. The next lessons use the list to define done and to choose what to cut; in November the "needs first" column becomes the schedule. **Alex Tutor:** Danylo asks which unit to use. Check it. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** on the deliverable list, effort should be written in calendar weeks, so it can go straight into the schedule. **Vira:** Demo lessons need two names, mine and Roman's. **Alex Tutor:** Then split the line: Roman owns scheduling the candidates, you own judging them. A line with two owners has none. **Alex Tutor:** Try the rule on another shared line. > **Exercise:** Demo lessons need both Roman (scheduling candidates) and Vira (judging them). How should the deliverable list handle that? **Sofia:** Then let me sort what we heard today. **Vira:** Put the list where everyone can comment. Better to argue about a line in October than in January. > **Exercise:** Where does each item belong? **Alex Tutor:** Now break one deliverable down yourself: the tutor pool. > **Exercise:** Break the **tutor pool** deliverable into three or four pieces of work. For each piece, name one owner and what it produces that someone can check. **Danylo:** I'll fill my lines by Thursday. Effort in person-days, not in calendar weeks? **Alex Tutor:** Person-days. Calendar time is a different question, and it gets its own module. > **Key ideas** > > - Break the work down from **deliverables** (things someone can check), not from merged task lists. > - A **work breakdown structure** is a tree: the project, deliverables, then pieces of work one person can own and estimate. > - The **100% rule**: all the work is in the tree, including project management and launch communications, and nothing appears twice. > - Stop at pieces of up to about two weeks of effort; the owner keeps the tasks below. > - Flatten the tree into a list: deliverable, one owner, an effort range, what it needs first. **Alex Tutor:** Next: what "done" means for each line, so nobody can call the curriculum finished just because the file exists. - Previous lesson: [Case: the brief for the physics launch](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/physics-launch-brief-case.md) - Next lesson: [Acceptance criteria: what "done" means](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/acceptance-criteria.md) --- Productovi Learning. 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