Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Material Items
MIL-STD-881D
Standard Purpose and Structure.
This Standard presents direction for effectively preparing, understanding, and presenting a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). It provides the framework for Department of Defense (DoD) Program Managers to define their program’s WBS and to defense contractors in their application and extension of the Program and contract’s WBS to report additional details associated with their agreements with Government Program Managers.
Section 1 defines and describes the WBS.
Section 2 provides instructions on how the WBS is applied as well as how to develop a Program WBS in the pre-award timeframe (i.e., before a contract or government performed effort has begun).
Section 3 provides direction for developing and implementing a Contract WBS and
Section 4 examines the role of the WBS in the post-award timeframe. Throughout this standard, the word “contract” and “defense contractor” is used to refer to both literal contracts with private industry but also refers to agreements between a Program Office and other government organizations (e.g., test sites, depots, labs, federally funded research and development centers (FFRDC)).
This Standard also provides WBS definitions for specific defense materiel commodity systems in Appendices A through J. Appendix K addresses WBS elements that are common to all systems, as well as those which use unique elements (e.g., Space Systems, Information Systems/Defense Business Systems, Launch Systems, and Strategic Missile Systems). Appendix L presents for the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) Sustainment Cost Estimating Structure (CES) and its associated definitions for informational purposes.
The purpose of providing sustainment information is to present an explanation of transitioning from reporting using a WBS to reporting sustainment costs using the CES, regardless of acquisition phase or type of funds used.
The primary objective of this Standard is to achieve a consistent application of the WBS for all programmatic needs (including performance, cost, schedule, risk, budget, and contractual). Discussion and direction was compiled based on many years of lessons learned in employing WBSs on defense programs.
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