ABSTRACT
Work breakdowns must be carried out in a systematic fashion, so that there is a logical, hierarchical pattern to the breakdown. This chapter considers the breakdown of such large projects, and then goes on to discuss the way in which all projects, regardless of their size, need to be divided into sensibly coded elements or work packages. The convenience of grouping items into families of items with common or similar characteristics is important for many comparative purposes. Family grouping and identification can be built into item codes using suitable digits as subcodes. A family might comprise, for example, all pumps specified by a mining or petrochemical company. Once a coding system has been established it is difficult and unwise to make any fundamental change. The choice of a system therefore has to be undertaken with a great deal of care. It should be regarded as a long-term investment.
