Search This Blog

Importance of Earned Value Management in an Engineering office

Need of Earned Value Management in Project Execution

What is Earned Value Management?
Earned Value Management (EVM) is a systematic approach to the integration and measurement of cost, schedule, and technical (scope) accomplishments on a project or task. It provides the ability to examine detailed schedule information, critical program and technical milestones, and cost data.

Earned Value Management is intended to provide data like
– Relate time-phased budgets to contract tasks
– Integrate cost, schedule, and technical performance
– Indicate work progress objectively like
– Are valid, timely and auditable
– Are from the internal system the contractor uses to manage
– Are at a practical level of summarization

Why use Earned Value Management?
By using Earned Value and implementing an Earned Value Management System (EVMS), the following questions can be answered objectively:

• Where have we been?
• Where are we now?
• Where are we going?

Traditional Management vs. Earned Value Management

In Traditional management, there are two data sources, the budget (or planned) expenditures and the actual expenditures. The comparison of budget versus actual expenditures merely indicates what was planned to be spent versus what was actually spent at any given time. But how much has been produced? This approach there in no way to determine the physical amount of work performed. It does not indicate anything about what has actually been produced for the amount of money spent nor whether it is being produced at the rate, or according to the schedule, originally planned. In other words, it does not relate the true cost performance of the project.

Earned Value Management
In Earned Value Management, unlike in traditional management, there are three data sources:
– the budget (or planned) value of work scheduled
– the actual value of work completed
– the “earned value” of the physical work completed
Earned Value takes these three data sources and is able to compare the budgeted value of work scheduled and compare it to the “earned value of physical work completed” and the actual value of work completed.

Traditional management provides us how much money and time a particular job is likely to require prior to starting and once stated, how much money was spent at any given time.

Earned Value Management provides us how much money and time a particular job is likely to require prior to starting and once stated, how much money was spent at any given time along with
•Once started, what work has been accomplished to date for the funds expended (what you got for what you spent)
•Once started, what the total job will cost at completion, and how long it will take to complete

Framework for an Earned Value Management System (EVMS) can be divided into three phases:

1. Inputs -what is needed to implement Earned Value
2. Earned Value Methods – formulas, metrics and performance measurements used
3. Outputs – reporting requirements (structure, time-phases, details)

Inputs needed for Earned Value Management System (EVMS)
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS)
• Project Schedule
• Time-phased Baseline Budget
• Cost/Resource Control Plan
• Change Control Plan

The Earned Value method required for an EVMS includes:
• Planned Value (PV), Earned Value (EV) Actual Cost (AC)
• Metrics and Performance Measurements
• Forecasting
• Integrated Baseline Review


The outputs required for an EVMS include:
• Reporting requirements
• Proper Analysis of Reports WBS/OBS
• Correct Action taken

In comparing Earned Value Management to Traditional Management, Traditional Management does not allow for analysis of the physical amount of work performed. Earned Value Management allows for both schedule and cost analysis against physical amount of work performed.

No comments: