work breakdown structure
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deliverable oriented decomposition of a project into smaller components (in project management and systems engineering)
~18 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Example from MIL-HDBK-881, which illustrates the first three levels of a typical aircraft system
A work-breakdown structure (WBS) in project management and systems engineering is a breakdown of a project into smaller components. It is a key project management element that organizes the team's work into manageable sections. The Project Management Body of Knowledge defines the work-breakdown structure as a "hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables."
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “work breakdown structure” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.