Applied Project Management Program (APMP) for Professionals

A resource breakdown structure, or RBS, is a list of resources needed to deliver a project. It comprises everything that costs money, including people, tools, materials, licenses, places, and time. Developing an RBS helps project or resource managers categorize available and required resources by function and type, minimizing risk and uncertainty and producing more successful outcomes.

Benefits of resource breakdown structure

Drawing up an RBS before working on a new project brings many benefits. Apart from clarifying what you’ll need and what you have, resource breakdown structures help to identify and group resources in a way that fosters the efficient implementation of resources throughout a project’s development cycle.

Other benefits of a resource breakdown structure include:

• A historical and predictive archive of resources allocated and used in completed projects
• Insights into the number of resources being used at any time during a project’s development cycle
• A culture of documentation, strong internal systems, and informed decision-making
• Streamlined collaboration between cross-functional teams sharing resources
• A single source of truth holding all information on available, assigned, and needed resources
• Informative post-production analysis for future project planning
• A higher end-product quality produced within budget
• More accurate budgetary decisions for estimating total project cost
• Easy identification of overlaps and gaps in organizational resources, project requirements, and team needs
• A straightforward assessment of employee workload