a measurable increment of work, usually of fairly short duration (a month or so)
In ASAP, a group of activities designed to accomplish a major portion of a Roadmap phase.
Presentation of information functionally divided into individual task packages in the logical order of work sequence. The work packages shall be stand-alone general information, operating, maintenance, troubleshooting, parts, and supporting information units containing all information required for directing task performance. Work packages may be given to a soldier(s) so they may have complete instructions for accomplishing a task.
Detailed jobs, or material items, identified by the contractor for accomplishing work required to complete the contract. A work package has the following characteristics: It represents units of work at levels where work is performed. It is clearly distinguished from all other work packages. It is assigned to a single organizational element. It has scheduled start and completion dates and, as applicable, interim milestones, all of which are representative of physical accomplishment. It has a budget or assigned value expressed in terms of dollars, man-hours, or other measurable units. Its duration is limited to a relatively short span of time or it is subdivided by discrete value milestones to facilitate the objective measurement of work performed It is integrated with detailed engineering, manufacturing, or other schedules
A group of related tasks that are defined at the same level within a work breakdown structure. (In traditional cost/schedule systems, the criteria for defining work packages is as follows: 1) Each work package is clearly distinguishable from all other work packages in the programme. 2) Each work package has a scheduled start and finish date. 3) Each work package has an assigned budget that is time-phased over the duration of the work package. 4) Each work package either has a relatively short duration, or can be divided into a series of milestones whose status can be objectively measured. 5) Each work package has a schedule that is integrated with higher-level schedules).
In project management, a deliverable at the bottom of a work breakdown structure. This may be treated as a subproject to be assigned to a project manager to plan and execute, in which case this manager will define new activities.
Like a project plan in miniature, a work package is a subset of a project that can be assigned to a specific party for execution. Because of the similarity, work packages are often misidentified as projects.