I recently have had some experience advising on projects providing insight in the reporting and best practices from a PM perspective. One thing I have been trying to instill in my clients is the purpose of proper reporting and transparency on the progress of the project or programs. I have had the luxury of seeing varying environments and even had a brief post on LinkedIn about my opinion of Earned Value Management its benefits and some of its fallbacks.
What are your thoughts on Earned Value Management? When do you think it is necessary for project's to leverage EVM? Do you or your organization leverage EVM? Saving Changes...
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
I use EVM and earned scheduling. In my case, the most useful is the prediction calculations. Saving Changes...
I think EVM is an excellent tool too evaluate progress and a great guide for future progress. Saving Changes...
Chad HarrisProject Manager III, PMP, MPM, MBA, CLSSGB| Memorial Health SystemSpringfield, Il, United States
Earned Value Management are very important to measuring the performance and actual progress of a project in comparison to the planned cost and schedule. Specifically it will help you understand if the project is over budget or under budget and if the project is behind schedule or ahead of schedule.
A project manager should start leveraging EVM calculations early on in the project because that is the greatest opportunity to successfully implement any corrective actions. Waiting toward the end of a project provides less time to successfully implement corrective actions and therefore more likely an unsuccessful project will result.
Chad Harris
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1 reply by John Caron, MBA, PMP, CSM
Apr 08, 2016 3:04 PM
John Caron, MBA, PMP, CSM
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Chad Harris summarized this very well. EVM should be early to track, including risks, thus the team has corrective actions to employ. I believe green project managers wait until its to far into the project or don't even employ EVM via their corporations culture. I had a PMP instructor who introduced EVM at her respective company to senior management. No prior PM had performed this and they, executives referred to the EVM reports as the "WOW! Report" as they where simply amazed as how beneficial this aides a project.
Saving Changes...
George (Bill) GatesProject Analyst| Precise Systems Inc.Bloomington, In, United States
Agree with everything said thus far, I would add that one of the challenges with EVM is assuring that approved changes are incorporated into the data given. I've worked in very dynamic programs in the past where this was extremely challenging to keep up to date. Saving Changes...
In simple words, Earned Value Management is important to keep a track on, at any point in time during project execution, how much money you have spent, whether in a controlled manner or not, and how much you would have for the remaining work to complete as per plan.
You can take corrective action if there is any issue in the initial budget planning, or how it is currently being spent.
These calculations are really very helpful to keep a track of your project's budget performance. By this you can plan spending milestones, during the project execution, as a checklist. And when you reaches these milestones, you can compare how much budget you planned up to this milestone, and how much budget you have actually spent so far or saved.
EVM also helps to give you earlier proper warning sign if you have spent more then the planned. In such case EVM helps you to forecast how much more budget you need for the remaining work to be completed per project as plan.
Best Regards
Vikaas Verma Saving Changes...
John Caron, MBA, PMP, CSMVP - Technology Project Solutions Consultant| Bank of AmericaJacksonville, Fl, United States
Apr 05, 2016 3:15 PM
Replying to Chad Harris
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Earned Value Management are very important to measuring the performance and actual progress of a project in comparison to the planned cost and schedule. Specifically it will help you understand if the project is over budget or under budget and if the project is behind schedule or ahead of schedule.
A project manager should start leveraging EVM calculations early on in the project because that is the greatest opportunity to successfully implement any corrective actions. Waiting toward the end of a project provides less time to successfully implement corrective actions and therefore more likely an unsuccessful project will result.
Chad Harris
Chad Harris summarized this very well. EVM should be early to track, including risks, thus the team has corrective actions to employ. I believe green project managers wait until its to far into the project or don't even employ EVM via their corporations culture. I had a PMP instructor who introduced EVM at her respective company to senior management. No prior PM had performed this and they, executives referred to the EVM reports as the "WOW! Report" as they where simply amazed as how beneficial this aides a project. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
EVM is a must for fixed price projects within an accrual-based accounting system. Saving Changes...
Praveen MalikIndependent Consultant| Independent ConsultantNew Delhi, India
Drake, The benefits of EVM mentioned in your article are not the actually the benefits of EVM. Rather, they are general benefits of project monitoring. Specific benefit of EVM is that it provides a singular view of Scope, Time and Cost. Moreover, I believe, point 4 is not worded properly. There is a difference between lag & missing timelines. EVM does not tell anything about lags. Similarly, there is a difference between risk and issue EVM can identify both risks & issues but wordings of point 4 suggest that you wanted to talk about risks.
