PBS: A Major Enabler for Systems Engineering

Abstract

In 2012, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés initiated a study on the PBS (Product Breakdown Structure) as the central enabler for Systems Engineering throughout the lifecycle of a Solution. The obvious similarities between tree representations suggest in a simplistic and reductive way that breakdown structures are only an unnecessary redundancy due to complementary businesses designating the same reality in different ways. However, a more careful examination of international standards and stepped uses of these tree frames shows how different their purposes are and how they support different features of the system being designed. Nevertheless a confusion exists between these tools. Our paper asks a question of principle: “does this confusion come from imprecise and unclear standards on this subject, from incorrect interpretations of these by system architects or from vague approximations in the use of technical tools that structure and size R&D projects?”.