Cost Breakdown Structure
The CBS (Cost Breakdown Structure) is the main tab of the Workspaces page in Control and is the tab where you typically spend most of your time. Each row in the CBS represents a work activity and is called a cost item. In Lesson 2 – General Navigation, you learned how to customize data blocks of the CBS register to only the columns you need to manage your project.
The CBS is organized in a hierarchy of superior and subordinate cost items. A cost item is superior and/or subordinate based on its relationship to other cost items. This is similar to a parent and a child relationship where an individual can be both a parent and a child at the same time. The CBS is color coded to identify which level of the hierarchy a specific cost item is located.
If a cost item has no subordinates it is considered a terminal cost item. Terminal cost items are where cost is tracked. All superior items are a roll up of the budget, manhours, and cost of the cost items below. Terminal items are identified with a special symbol located at the first column of each data block.
This terminology and associated graphics provide a way to communicate and understand the hierarchy of the Cost Breakdown Structure. The following table provides definitions for each of these terms.
|
Term |
Definition |
|---|---|
|
Superior |
Cost item that has subordinate subcost items that roll up under it. |
|
Subordinate |
Cost item that is a child to a superior cost item. |
|
Terminal |
Cost item that has no subordinate beneath it. Costs and hours are defined at the terminal level. |
As accurate as estimators try to build the estimate, changes occur during the project’s execution that affect the CBS register in Control. To learn how to maintain, improve, and use the CBS register properly, this topic focuses on the fundamentals of the Cost Breakdown Structure.
CBS Tree
The CBS tree provides a way to navigate up and down your Cost Breakdown Structure and a way to filter down to a subset of the structure.
You open the CBS tree slide out panel by clicking on the CBS Tree icon on the Side Toolbar.
When selected, the CBS tree icon turns yellow and the slide out panel appears.
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Select Expand all to expand the entire Cost Breakdown Structure
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Select Collapse all to collapse the entire Cost Breakdown Structure
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Click on the arrow icons to expand a cost item to view its subordinates
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Select a cost item and then click Apply to filter your view to that cost item and its subordinates
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To clear the CBS filter, click the CBS tree icon and then click Disable
You can select more than one cost item on the tree to create a customized view.
Cost Item Dashboard
The Cost Item Dashboard slide-out panel shows multiple cost item affiliated graphs. These graphs let you further analyze cost item past and current performance trends related to time-phased distribution, current budget changes, value over time, completion progress indicators, and a CBS audit history log.
You open the Cost Item dashboard slide out panel by right-clicking on a cost item, and then selecting Cost item dashboard.
