Earned Value Management for Project Management
November 20th, 2002 by HalGood article on Earned Value Management titled Do the Math in the current issue of Projects@Work. Unfortunately, the website lags the publication of the journal. The article was written by Ray Statton coauthor of the future PMI Earned Value Practice Standard. He describes the EVM approach in two pages.
Elsewhere in the journal are two other articles that hail the merits of EVM. Let me be perfectly clear… I am not a proponent of EVM. In fact, if I had to come down on one side or the other, then I'd choose to be an opponent. The problem I see in organizations is EVM adds a level of administration (and bureaucracy) to essentially provide a highly detailed rear-view mirror. It ends up being a tool for tracking rather than steering. There is rarely time available for replanning the EV, let alone to use other tools for planning and steering. The major problem is fixing the EV in the system having the effect of making it real. While the world continues to be uncertain, there is often significant resistance to making any changes to what has already been committed in the accounting system.
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November 22nd, 2002 at 8:53 pm
I have used EV to ensure that the project team is making real progress. Often, a team can stay near schedule by working overtime. They may complete easy tasks early. They may be slightly behind on a very large task. All of these things would yield a visible effect in earned value. And MS Project can calculate the EV numbers, you simply have to copy them out and paste them into a spreadsheet every now and then. So the cost does not have to be very high. However, I would probably never want to HAVE to deliver EV on a periodic basis. I prefer to use it when I think I should and then stop once I feel I have a handle on the major areas. But since software project costs are primarily labor, variance reports are often just as good. You schedule is still your schedule and your cost is hours worked vs. hours estimated. So EV calculations are not really needed, but you still get the basic measurements that the EV method intended to be used to monitor project progress.