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Work Breakdown Structure

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Work breakdown structure

A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in project management and systems engineering, is a tool that defines a project and groups the project’s discrete work elements in a way that helps organize and define the total work scope of the project.[1]
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Example of a work breakdown structure of an aircraft system.
A Work breakdown structure element may be a product, data, a service, or any combination. WBS also provides the necessary framework for detailed cost estimating and control along with providing guidance for schedule development and control. Additionally the WBS is a dynamic tool and can be revised and updated as needed by the project manager.[1]

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History

The concept of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) developed with the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) in the United States Department of Defense (DoD). PERT was introduced by the U.S. Navy in 1957 to support the development of its Polaris missile program. [1] While the term "work breakdown structure" was not used, this first implementation of PERT did organize the tasks into product-oriented categories.[5]
By June of 1962, DoD, NASA and the aerospace industry published a guidance document for the PERT/COST system which included an extensive description of the WBS approach. [6] This guide was endorsed by the Secretary of Defense for adoption by all services.[7] In 1968, the DoD issued "Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items" (MIL-STD-881), a military standard mandating the use of work breakdown structures across the DoD. [8] This standard established top-level templates for common defense materiel items along with associated descriptions (WBS dictionary) for their elements.
The document has been revised several times, most recently in 2005. The current version of this guidance can be found in "Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items" (MIL-HDBK-881A).[9] It includes guidance for preparing work breakdown structures, templates for the top three levels of typical systems, and a set of "common

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