So you need to select earned value management software? You’re in the right place. Making an investment in an EVMS is a big decision for any organization. In this bumper earned value management software buyer’s guide, we’ll take you through the 10 steps for choosing the right product for you, from working out your reasons for moving to EVM tools to making your final decision.
Let’s get started.
What are EVM project management tools?
EVM project management tools are software tools that work together to provide a complete system for tracking project performance, based on integrating schedule and cost.
A complete EVM system may use a couple of different tools that ‘talk’ to each other, along with processes that make sure everyone is using earned value management approaches in the same way.
An EVM solution gives you accurate, reliable data that shows you exactly how a project is performing. You’ll be able to see whether a project is on track or off schedule, and what impact that is going to have on the budget.
The difference between EVM and non-EVM ways of measuring project performance is that without EVM tools, a lot of project tracking data is simply calculated based on percent complete or the project team’s feel for how things are going. There is no solid integration between spending and time – which is what you get with earned value.
Why do you want earned value management software?
For some of our clients, buying EVMS tools is a result of winning, or wanting to win, contracts for federal government projects. If you bid for DoD projects, for example, you will need to evidence that you can meet their guidelines for project performance management and that includes having value management tools.
For other clients, adopting Earned Value is a step on the journey to improved project maturity, and the software is just part of their approach to getting better at managing performance. They want to create better financial forecasts for their projects and spot trends earlier with data-based information. These reports provide standardized ways of looking at all the projects in the portfolio, making it easier to compare performance across projects and make better decisions about investment and priority.
Whatever your reason, earned value tools are required if you want to integrate project budgets, schedules, actual cost data and see project performance tracked over time.
Before you buy EVM software
You’ve got the requirement for an Earned Value Management System but don’t go out and buy one just yet. It’s really important to understand the basic concepts of Earned Value and the EIA-748 guidelines before you make any purchasing decisions. Take a moment to consider how any US federal contract regulations and guidelines also affect the work you will be doing in the system.
This is essential because if you don’t make the connection between the tool and your contracts, we see companies spending more money, taking longer to deliver anything and often ending up with very little to show for their investment.
Investing in EVM software tools is a big commitment – not only financially but also in terms of the organizational change and internal processes that need to be adapted in order to get the best out of the systems. In addition, your new tool typically needs to integrate with many of your existing software products and processes so that everything works smoothly. That’s why we recommend a structured approach to choosing the right product for you.
Before you sign a contract to buy any software deal, make sure all the objectives for the business can be met by the tool. In other words, understand the problems you want to solve so you can make the best decision for your organization.
Considerations for buying
Here are some considerations to take into account as you prepare your shortlist of tools:
- What existing requirements do you have (or will you have) in contracts with clients?
- How many projects, programs or contracts will be using EVM?
- Will the software be used for projects where there is no contractual requirement to use EVM?
- What software tools do you need your new product to integrate with and how easy will that be?
- What sort of projects are being managed?
- How will this tool support the ongoing project management maturity and development of your PMO organization?
Also ask yourself: What other areas of project and program management and PMO operations need to be improved in order to successfully implement an EVM approach? For example:
- Project governance
- Risk management
- Scheduling
- Estimating and forecasting
- Resource management
All areas of project performance management need to be at an acceptable standard in order to meet the EV guidelines and also deliver accurate reporting.
Step 1: Document your objectives
First, clearly outline the goals for investing in earned value software tools. As we saw above, this could be to meet contractual requirements, to build project management maturity through better oversight or something else.
Step 2: Talk to the project management community in your organization
Introducing any new software tool is a big deal for users, so make sure your project management teams know what you are considering and why. Gather feedback on why this move is important and relevant, how it supports overall company strategies and how they will be supported in learning how to use it.
Step 3: Review processes
Look at your existing processes for reporting, financial management, forecasting, estimating, resource allocation, scheduling and anything else that is going to be affected by your new tools. This is an important step as you may uncover processes that also need to be updated in order to work efficiently.
Make a list of all the processes that will be affected – everything from how work is allocated, to using time sheets in a standard way, to onboarding new starters and providing training. There’s a lot that will change but you don’t have to do it all in one go. As you work through your implementation plans you can prioritize and structure the organizational change required.
Step 4: Review constraints
You may come across some constraints that cannot be changed – for example, it’s unlikely the company is going to want to switch your payroll tool as part of this software implementation – so that has to be taken into consideration as part of the software selection process. List out all the software tools that your new EVMS solution has to integrate with so you can cross-check that during your product selection.
Contractual requirements are also a constraint: there is no point investing in a tool only to find out that it doesn’t meet the requirements for certification and that you won’t be compliant using it.
The EIA 748 guidelines fit in here as well: they provide a baseline for what your software needs to be able to do.
Step 5: Document your requirements
With input from users and specialists in the organization, create your requirements documentation. List everything that the tools need to do.
Here’s a starting point, although this list is by no means complete:
Cost management (earned value) requirements
- Direct and indirect rate tables
- Escalation rules
- Financial calendars
- Work authorization
- Change control
- Level of effort and other earned value-specific techniques
- Logs to track and reconcile contract budgets, management reserves and other budget categories
- Ability to organize by control accounts and work packages
- Forecasting and tracking in detail and in summary
EV reporting tools
- Dashboards with data analysis and drill-down capability
- Integrations so data from other systems can be pulled in and pushed out to where it is needed
- Folders and libraries to organize reports
- Workflows and authorizations
- Data integrity analysis and cross-checking
- AI tools
- Trend analysis
Other
- Compliance with EIA-748 standards
- Easy-to-use interface
- Adequate support and training available
If this sounds like a big undertaking, skip forward to Step 6 because the right partner will make creating your requirements list a breeze.
Step 6: Select a partner
As you can see, a compliant, certified set of EVM software tools is going to take a lot of effort to get in place. There are many integrations and process updates to do, and that’s why we recommend working with a partner.
Choose an experienced partner who can help apply just the right amount of integration so your solution is fit for purpose without being over-engineered or reliant on manual interaction to make it work.
We think we’re pretty good at that: our experienced consultants have hands-on experience working with the world’s leading vendors. We don’t resell software so we are truly independent. We can advise on what solution will be the best fit for your needs and to ensure you stay within your contracted requirements. We’ve seen hundreds of implementations and can share best practices to help you avoid common pitfalls. For example, while it might seem like buying every component from the same supplier would be a good idea, sometimes that organization hasn’t yet integrated its suite of tools, especially if it has grown by acquisition. We can quickly establish what blend of best-in-class tools is going to be the right fit for you.
Step 7: Make a shortlist
Next, make a shortlist of tools to investigate. The leading vendors in the earned value management space include:
- Deltek
- Oracle
- Microsoft
There are several components of a full earned value management system. Here are some of the types of tools required along with popular vendors:
- Scheduling Tools: Oracle Primavera P6, Deltek OpenPlan, Microsoft Project, Deltek Acumen Fuse and Acumen Risk
- Earned Value Tools: Deltek Cobra
- EV Reporting Tools: Deltek wInsight, Encore Analytics Empower, Microsoft Excel
- Account/ERP Tools: Oracle Applications, Deltek Costpoint, Deltek GCS Premier, SAP, Peoplesoft, JD Edwards
You may find that some of the components are already installed and operational in your company. For example, you’ve most likely already got a fully-featured finance tool for accounting and an ERP solution. And if you are running projects, you’re bound to have something for project scheduling.
While you can upgrade a few tools at once to give you a more robust, enterprise solution on which to run earned value, that makes for a larger, more complex project with a greater degree of organizational change. A more moderate approach would be to introduce a new EV tool that integrates with your existing IT suite, and then over time switch out legacy products to upgrade.
Step 8: Compare products
Take your list of requirements and check that each project makes the grade. Rank your shortlisted products for their features and how aligned they are to what you need them to do. Disregard any that can’t meet your constraints at all.
Some of this work can be paper-based using the vendor’s website, or you can speed up the initial checking by bringing in your partner. We’ve worked with lots of enterprise project management tools and earned value management software tools over the years and can quickly highlight the ones that will be suitable for your environment.
You’ll also want to arrange product demos and let your project teams see what the tools are like. Again, we recommend having an independent, experienced person in the demos, as often clients don’t know what they don’t know. We will be able to ask the right questions to ensure a demo shows you what you need and you avoid a hard sales pitch for features you’ll never use.
Ideally, your product selection exercise will narrow down the field and you’ll find one or two products coming out on top. You might want to take an extended trial of those to see how they would work with your own project data and that might be something the vendor can arrange for you.
Step 9: Make a decision
Finally, it’s time to make a decision. Use everything you’ve learned about the products to help guide you to the right choice. An independent partner can help you put together the investment business case for funding your new tool as well as implementation plans to make the change as easy as possible.
If you would like to learn how our consultants can help you select the right Earned Value Management Software for your business, call Ten Six today (703) 910-2600.