Resource breakdown structures provide another method of viewing planned and actual costs and revenue of a project by resources, resource types, and other groupings of resources. The resource breakdown structure consists of one or more hierarchies of resource elements. An element is a resource type, such as job or organization, or a combination of a resource type and a specified resource, such as the job of Staffing Consultants or a person named John Smith.

In addition to all of the resource types described above, you can also use another resource type called Role exclusively in a resource breakdown structure. A role is an actual, assigned resource, such as a developer or a project manager.

Example
The following table demonstrates a resource breakdown structure:

Viewing Amounts with a Resource Breakdown Structure
You use the resource breakdown structure to view actual and planned amounts for both effort and cost against financial plans and workplans. The resource breakdown structure defines how the financial and work information is aggregated and reported for a project.

You can track the cost impact of every resource that has been assigned to a project task and use the resource breakdown structure to view the breakdown of these costs. Oracle Projects associates the costs of the resources used for tasks with levels in the resource breakdown structure as they are entered. The process for determining the correct association is managed by rules of precedence.

Defining a Resource Breakdown Structure

You build the resource breakdown structure based on the resource types and resources already defined in the system. For each level of the hierarchy, you select the resource type and specify the associated resource.
 
Versions provide a history of resource breakdown structures used for resource reporting. You use versions to make changes and control when to transmit these changes to associated projects.

Assigning a resource breakdown structure
You can associate a resource breakdown structure with the workplan and financial plan of a project.