Deliverable breakdowns

Another topic related to deliverables is that most projects have too many deliverables, and it would be overwhelming if you tried to manage them in a flat list. For this reason, most methodologies use hierarchical breakdowns for deliverables, where the project is broken down into a few major elements, and those into their building elements and so on for a few more levels until you reach the level of detail required for the project. Many resources call it a work breakdown structure (WBS), but other names are common as well; for example, PRINCE2^® calls it a product breakdown structure (PBS) and P3.express calls it a deliverables map.

Small projects can manage their deliverables with a flat list; for instance, micro.P3.express, which is designed for micro projects, doesn’t have a mandatory deliverables map. However, larger projects can benefit a lot from having a hierarchical breakdown of deliverables. If you have such a project and your methodology doesn’t have one (e.g., most Agile methods), you may need to add one.