From the course: Accounting Foundations: Cost Estimating

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The work breakdown structure

The work breakdown structure

From the course: Accounting Foundations: Cost Estimating

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The work breakdown structure

- If you took a trip anywhere, you probably did some type of work breakdown structure. Now, let's say you want to go to Europe. You'd have to decide where in Europe you'd want to go. Like which country or even countries. This would be the first breakdown. Then, you need to decide how long and what's your spending budget. This would be the next level of detail, the next breakdown. Finally, you break down all the fun stuff, where you'll stay, sites to see, experiences to have. You see where I'm going with this? It's not a traditional work breakdown structure, it's actually a vacation breakdown structure. But still, we're breaking down a larger effort into smaller components. We do all of this work to make it easier to plan and budget, and make it more predictable. In costing, this is called a work breakdown structure, or WBS. It defines everything a project, rather than the vacation, must accomplish, organized into…

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