MIL-HDBK-881A No Longer Guidance

    MIL-HDBK-881A was classified as "guidance." Now it's Military Standard (MIL-STD-881 is the likely designator) with the related mandatory requirements.  Poorly formed WBS's (wib-us) as it is pronounced, are common in many domain of DoD. There are equally a number of good implementations of a WBS. 881A clearly and concisely states that the WBS is:

• The family tree results from systems engineering efforts during the acquisition of a defense materiel item.
• A WBS displays and defines the product(s) to be developed and/or produced. It relates the elements of work to be accomplished to each other and to the end product.
• A WBS can be expressed to any level of detail. However, the top three levels are the minimum recommended any program or contract needs for reporting purposes unless the items identified are high cost or high risk. Then, and only then, is it critical to define the product at a lower level of WBS detail.

To "foot and tie" this together, The EVM Contract Requirements Checklist has been updated read in part:

A product-oriented Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), in accordance with the DoD WBS Handbook (MIL-HDBK-881A) and the Contract Work Breakdown Structure (CWBS) DID (DID number DI-MGMT-81334C), is mandatory when EVM is implemented and a CPR and an IMS are required.  For contracts that require Contractor Cost Data Reports (CCDRs), the CWBS will be developed, approved, and maintained in accordance with DoD 5000.04-M-1, Cost and Software Data Reporting Manual, and the CWBS DID.

So Earned Value and WBS's go hand in hand. Measuring phsyical percent complete means measuring the physical progress of the product items being produced by the program. For more on this riviting topic, see the topical subjects at EVM World 2009, where yours truley will be speaking on "Earning Value of Earned Value."