Earned Value
The Secrets to Earned Value Management Success
Earned Value (EV) is a management tool for tracking and communicating a project's status. Earned Value Management (EVM) will let you know the actual state of the project by comparing your current project performance against your plan. Knowing the project's performance will let you take actions needed to ensure that the project is completed on time and within budget. Like any tool, in order for EVM to be successful, it very important that it is used correctly.
Earned Value Management Study: Is Your Organisation Ready for EVM?
The goal of this article is to encourage project managers to participate in an academic survey to help determine if an organisation is ready to apply earned value management to its projects. If you are interested in providing input into an assessment tool to help determine if an organisation is ready to apply earned value, please read on!
What is Earned Value?
Current performance is the best indicator of future performance and therefore using trend data it is possible to forecast cost or schedule overruns at quite an early stage in a project. The most comprehensive trend analysis technique is the Earned Value method.
Earned Value Management Explained
Earned Value Management (EVM) helps project managers to measure project performance. It is a systematic project management process used to find variances in projects based on the comparison of worked performed and work planned. EVM is used on the cost and schedule control and can be very useful in project forecasting. The project baseline is an essential component of EVM and serves as a reference point for all EVM related activities. EVM provides quantitative data for project decision making.
How to Implement Earned Value
Earned value (EV) is one of the most sophisticated and accurate methods for measuring and controlling project schedules and budgets. Earned value has been used extensively in large projects, especially in government projects. PMI is a strong supporter of the earned value approach because of its ability to accurately monitor the schedule and cost variances for complex projects.
Earned Value, Clear and Simple (PDF)
The term "Earned Value" is gaining in popularity around project management circles as if it is some wonderful new concept to be embraced. Yet, it has been in use since the 1960s when the Department of Defence adopted it as a standard method of measuring project performance. Today, it is both embraced and shunned, often in response to prior experience or stories told "in the hallway." The opponents will generally cite the cost and effort to make it work, and the limited benefit derived from its implementation. The proponents will cite the cost savings to the project overall, the improved analysis, communication and control derived from its implementation. No doubt, the two camps have vastly different experiences to formulate their perceptions.