ABSTRACT
Besides the work breakdown structure (WBS) discussed in Chapter 4, the implementation guide to the DoD’s Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria (C/SCSC) procedure went on to define the ‘organization’ as a structure that reflects the way the contractor has organized his people for both responsibility and reporting. When this structure is laid out as a hierarchical arrangement it is often and quite sensibly referred to as the ‘Organization Breakdown Structure’ (OBS) although these words were not actually used in the original document. Furthermore, the C/SCSC implementation guide sets out a fixed relationship between the OBS and the WBS; where these two structures meet – that is, where a package of identifiable work can be associated with a responsible part of the organization – a control account is created (this was formerly known as a ‘cost account’ and is sometimes still referred to as such, particularly with some software packages). This relationship is shown in Figure 6.1; the array of control accounts is called the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM). This fixed relationship was fundamental to the way in which the C/SCSC procedure was intended to work, and is mandatory when some specialist earned value software packages are used, again reflecting how some aspects of earned value have become dominated by this initial US approach.
