Work Breakdown Structure - WBS (A Project Management Topic)
An Abstract A work breakdown structure (WBS), in project and systems engineering, is a deliverable oriented decomposition of a project into smaller components. The successful accomplishment of both contract and corporate objectives requires a plan that defines all efforts to be expended assigns responsibility to a specially identified organizational element and establish schedules and budgets for the accomplishment of the work. A work breakdown structure element may be a product, data, service, or any combination thereof. A WBS also provides the necessary framework for detailed cost estimating and control along with providing guidance for schedule development and control. The WBS is organized around the primary products of the project (or planned outcomes) instead of the work needed to produce the products (planned actions). Since the planned outcomes are the desired ends of the project, they form a relatively stable set of categories in which the costs of the planned actions nee...