Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The Agency Work Breakdown Structure2 (WBS) is an agency-wide approach that uses a common format across all departments for the coordinated management and modelling of business processes and for contributing to the mapping and organisation of all major activities. It is used as an input to:

  • Management and Planning
  • Monitoring and Reporting
  • Audits and defining KPIs
  • Objectives and Job descriptions

The Agency WBS includes Work Package Descriptions (WPD) for all major Agency activities, including information on in- and outputs, WP owner, performance indicators, milestones, etc.  All work undertaken by the Agency is allocated to manageable segments and WPs that enable better planning and control of all activities. Moreover, the numbering system established for the Agency WBS and corresponding WPDs is in line with related high-level Agency documentation (e.g. Annual Activity Report, Single Programming Document, etc.), establishing consistency and suitable alignment. The Agency WBS is also compatible with and serves as a reference point for other activities, such as budgeting (Agency and delegated activities, budgetary processes), audits, scheduling, document management and staff resource planning.

In addition, the analysis of the Agency WBS and associated WPDs supports the interfaces between WPs, thus enabling the identification of overlaps and gaps among all Agency activities. The Agency WBS covers both core activities (per Regulation (EU) No 912/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council on setting up the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (“Agency Regulation”), as amended by Regulation (EU) No 512/2014) and those activities that fall under the various delegation agreements with the European Commission.

Agency Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Overview”. Click to enlarge.

 

2 The selected methodology is the development of a GSA high-level Work Breakdown Structure (GSA WBS) and the definition of corresponding Work Packages (WPs), in line with the requirements of the European Cooperation for Space Standardization “Project planning and implementation” (ECSS‐ M‐ST‐10C Rev. 1, Section 4.3.5).

Updated: Feb 22, 2023