EVM: Garbage In, Garbage Out

	Project Management

by Andy Jordan

August 23, 2010

There have been a few occasions where I have been asked to look at projects that appear to be failing badly. Earned value calculations show that the project is seriously behind schedule and over budget, and based on those numbers I have been asked to take a look and recommend some actions that will help the project recover. In some cases I have been able to do that, but in others the problem wasn’t with the project execution--it was with the planning or tracking.

If you are going to rely on EVM numbers to determine where your project is relative to schedule and budget, then you need accurate information on what is really happening as well as accurate information on what should be happening. I don’t want to turn this into an article on the need for good planning and tracking in general; rather I want to look at the specific planning and tracking requirements for earned value management--and the aspects that a project manager has to consider in preparing and managing their project for EVM.

Planning from the EVM perspective
Let’s start with the basics of EVM--the need to identify budgeted cost/planned value from a task perspective.