In project management, a product breakdown structure (PBS) is a tool for analysing, documenting and communicating the outcomes of a project, and forms part of the product based planning technique.
The PBS provides an exhaustive, hierarchical tree structure of deliverables (physical, functional or conceptual) that make up the project, arranged in whole-part relationship.
This diagrammatic representation of project outputs provides a clear and unambiguous statement of what the project is to deliver.
The PBS is identical in format to the work breakdown structure (WBS), but includes only the physical architecture of a product.[1] The WBS includes the data and service elements necessary to complete the system, as well as all the product elements described in the PBS.[2]
PBS of a computer (see image on right):