Essential Reads on Earned Value Management
Earned value management (EVM) is a powerful tool for tracking project performance and ensuring that projects stay on schedule and within budget. Whether you’re new to EVM or a seasoned professional, there’s always more to learn about this essential project management practice.
We’ve compiled the ten most popular articles on our site that cover everything from understanding the basics of EVM to mastering complex formulas and responding to corrective actions. This list is the perfect place to start to broaden your knowledge of earned value management and where it might take you on your journey to project success.
1. What is an integrated master schedule (IMS)?
Organizations that use earned value management rely on integrated master schedules to make sure that there is complete visibility for all tasks. An IMS aggregates all the sub-schedules to ensure there is a complete view of what’s going on across the program.
2. Earned value charts explained (with examples)
One of the pieces of your earned value management system is the chart, and people sometimes get confused about what the graphs and charts show. An earned value chart is a way of displaying earned value management metrics over time. Typically, the chart has lines that represent budget (planned project cost), actual cost and earned value, which is a measure of how much progress has been made. But there’s much more to know than that!
3. 8 Earned value management formulas you should know
Confused about EV, PV, CV or SV? Or any of the other four calculations that are commonly used in earned value? In this article we break down eight calculations for earned value that will help you understand project performance. How many of these are you using?
4. What is earned value management?
We were surprised this wasn’t the number one most popular EVM article, but it’s still pretty high on the list. If you been asked to look into earned value management for your organization in advance of bidding for a government contract, this is the article for you. You’ll learn what earned value management is all about and how you can use it for your projects. It’s a true US contractor’s guide covering earned value from an EIA-748 standard perspective to help you get started.
Learn everything you need to know about EVM.
5. How to respond to a corrective action
Have you recently undergone a project review and received a Corrective Action Request (CAR) or a Discrepancy Report (DR)? If so, your next step is to quickly respond to them in the most appropriate way, to let the client know you are taking the findings seriously and have a plan to address them so those issues are not likely to happen again. But how do you do that? We have a guide that will help you get started quickly so you can get back to managing the project.
Read the step-by-step guide here
6. The EVM Glossary
Earned Value Management is full of acronyms that can appear confusing to folks new to the EVM world. So to help you, we put together our popular Earned Value Management Glossary, covering the most common terms used in the field. This is a free download with no registration required so grab your copy today!
Learn the glossary terms here.
7. 3 Processes that support integrated baseline reviews
Are you getting ready for an Integrated Baseline Review (IBR)? There are three processes that will help you prepare: the baseline maintenance process, the risk management process and the scheduling processes. Our guide to getting ready for your review will identify how your processes shape up against best practice.
8. EVM reporting requirements: an overview
Not the catchiest title for one our articles, but an essential read if you are getting started with earned value and are busy setting up the reporting requirements.
Many reports can be automated, but they still benefit from human intervention for review – and, of course, they take time to set up. That’s why it’s important to make sure your project is equipped to provide the right reports to your stakeholders. They will get the information they need, and you will streamline project admin by limiting the overhead of reporting something that nobody reads.
9. How to get investment for your PMO
It’s not always easy to get management buy-in for a PMO set up. PMOs are often used in large organizations as a way of instituting best practice, project processes and improving quality. But they take time and effort to set up so managers often need convincing before committing to PMO investment.
The potential return on investment is often much higher than anticipated, if everyone gets behind the idea of the PMO and works effectively to make it a success. But how can you do that?
Make your investment plan with this guide.
10. How to demonstrate EVMS compliance in an RFP
Many U.S. government contracts require contractors to have a fully compliant earned value management system (EVMS). The expectation is that you will complete your RFP response setting out how you will demonstrate EVMS compliance – even if you don’t currently have a compliant system in place. This article is a really practical guide to what you need to do to show you have a compliant earned value management system in place.