A&D pursuit-to-execution WBS template pattern

An aerospace & defense usage pattern observed in real IPP&E sample data: two distinct Common WBS templates that hand off to each other across a program's lifecycle — a Pursuit WBS for the business-development phase, and an Execution WBS (structured to MIL-STD-881F) for the awarded-program phase.

The Pursuit WBS ("New Business Management")

Models the business-development process of chasing and winning a contract, as its own WBS:

1. Initiate Pursuit
2. Qualify Opportunity
3. Build Relationships
4. Competitive Assessment
5. Generate Pursuit cost/schedule
6. Strategic Analysis
7. Win Strategy
8. Create New Program

Steps 5–8 of this pursuit structure encode the IPP&E-to-external-schedule round trip almost verbatim as WBS nodes:

• Create Pursuit WBS from common WBS — instantiate the pursuit structure from the Common WBS template.
• Update Span times — set/refine durations on the pursuit WBS nodes.
• Send Pursuit Data to Schedule Software — export to an external scheduling tool. This is the same integration point documented for IPP&E — Aurora Integration — the pursuit WBS is a real-world case of that external-schedule round trip being used for business-development planning, not just program execution.
• Receive Timephased Work Packages — import the time-phased schedule back from the external tool.
• Generate and Approve Work Package Estimates — cost estimation against the now-scheduled work packages.
• Bid-to-Win Management — the actual bid/proposal management activity.
• Create New Program — the handoff node. This is where the Pursuit WBS's job ends and the Execution WBS begins.

The handoff: Create Program WBS from common WBS based on Program Characteristics

The pursuit WBS's terminal node, "Create New Program," hands off to "Create Program WBS from common WBS based on Program Characteristics" — i.e. once a pursuit is won, a new, separate Common WBS template (the execution/MIL-STD-881F structure below) is instantiated for the actual program, driven by that program's characteristics (platform type, contract type, etc.) rather than continuing to build out the pursuit WBS itself.

This two-template handoff pattern is a reusable design worth knowing if you're structuring Common WBS templates for an A&D organization: keep business-development/pursuit activity in its own template, separate from program-execution structure, and use a single, well-defined handoff node between them rather than trying to model both phases in one WBS.

The Execution WBS: MIL-STD-881F structure

The execution-phase sample file is structured to MIL-STD-881F Appendix A (Aircraft Systems), with all 11 standard Level-2 elements present:

1. Air Vehicle
2. System Engineering
3. Program Management
4. System Test & Evaluation
5. Training
6. Data
7. Peculiar Support Equipment
8. Common Support Equipment
9. Operational/Site Activation
10. Industrial Facilities
11. Initial Spares and Repair Parts

A parallel MIL-STD-881F Appendix B (Sea Systems) variant also exists as a Common WBS template pattern — the same idea applied to a different platform-type appendix. In general, each MIL-STD-881F appendix (Aircraft, Sea, Ground, etc.) is a natural candidate for its own reusable Common WBS template in Teamcenter, since the standard already defines a stable, industry-recognized Level-2/Level-3 breakdown for that platform type — rather than each program author re-deriving its own WBS structure from scratch.

Practical takeaway

If you're setting up Common WBS templates for an aerospace/defense organization: model the pursuit phase and the execution phase as two separate templates with an explicit handoff node between them, and base the execution template's top levels on the relevant MIL-STD-881F appendix for your platform type rather than inventing a bespoke structure. See Bulk-load a WBS from Excel for how to actually get either template's structure into Teamcenter without hand-authoring every node.