Earned value management systems (EVMS) provide a framework for project managers to track schedule and budget performance. Key elements of EVMS include defining the scope of work, establishing a time-phased budget baseline, and periodically calculating metrics like cost and schedule variance to forecast project outcomes. While full ANSI/EIA-748 compliance requires addressing 32 criteria, a simpler approach focuses on 10 criteria like identifying tasks, establishing budgets and schedules, and recording costs to generate regular performance metrics. EVMS gives project managers visibility into whether work is on track and whether budgets need adjustment.

1. 1/31
A GENTLE INTRODUCTION TO
EARNED VALUE
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
“Good metrics let us see if we are doing the right
Glen B. Alleman things and doing them well."

2. What Do Project Managers Need to Know to Be
Successful?
 Is the project on schedule?
 Is the project on budget?
 How much will this project cost on the end date?
 What is the end date for this project?
 Simple project analysis tools can answer these questions
using time and cost tracking
 How much is it costing us to earn each unit of value
– $1.00 spent returns $X.00 of value?
– How much of the budget “should have been” spent at this point in
the project?
– How much “value” has the work on the project “earned” so far?
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3. What Is Earned Value Analysis?
 It is a way to measure the amount of work actually
performed on a project.
 It is a way to forecast a project’s cost and
completion date using historical and statistical
projections.
 It is a way to tell how well a project is
“performing” compared to its original plan.
 Given this information it is a way to forecast how
well the project will perform in the future.
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4. Some Introductory Definitions
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In (olde) and (current )notation
 Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS)(PC)
“The Planned Cost”
– This is the total budgeted cost. It answers the question “how much do we plan to
spend?” A second question that is answered is “How much work should be been
completed by this date?”
 Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP)(PV)
“Earned Value”
– This is the cost originally budgeted to accomplish the work that has been
completed. It answers the question “how much work has been actually
completed?”
 Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP)(AC)
“The Investment Cost”
– The actual cost to accomplish all the work that was performed by a specific
date. It answers the question “how much did we actually spend to deliver the
Earned Value?”

5. Basic Formulas Of Earned Value Management
Simple EVMS Terms
BCWS The planned of the work to be performed
BCWP The “earned value” of the performed work
ACWP The actual costs – in dollars – to complete the planned work
BAC The budget to complete the project
Cost and Schedule Variance
SV Schedule Variance BCWP – BCWS
CV Cost Variance BCWP – ACWP
SPI Schedule Performance Index BCWP / BCWS
CPI Cost Performance Index BCWP / ACWP
EAC Estimate at Complete ACWP + (BAC – BCWP)
TCPI To Complete Performance Index (BAC – BCWP) / (EAC – ACWP)
ISAC Independent Schedule at Complete Schedule / SPI
VAC Variance at Complete BAC – EAC
5 Print this page and keep in your notebook. No one, not even the pros can remember these
acronyms without a cheat sheet

6. 6/31
A Simple Edible Example
It’s the holidays, it’s cookie baking time! Let’s use Earned Value to
manage our Christmas Cookie project.

7. EVMS Of Our Holiday Cookie Baking
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Process
 Our Christmas Cookie  Analysis after one (1)
“Plan” hour of baking we’ve
 40 cookies per batch made …
 5 batches per hour (200  150 edible cookies
cookies per hour)  some were burnt,
 Schedule: 5 hours to  some hit the floor,
make 1,000 cookies (a  the kids ate some of the
big neighborhood) dough,
 fed some to the dog.
 Budgeted cost = $0.05
per cookie  Actual cost of ingredients
 Total Budget = $50.00
after one hour (ACWP)
for the 1,000 cookies = $9.00

8. After One Hour of Making Cookies
Simple EVMS
BCWS $10.00 Planned cost
BCWP 150 cookies X $0.05 per Cookie $7.50 Product cost
ACWP $9.00 Materials cost
Cost and Schedule Variance
SV BCWP – BCWS ($7.50 - $10.00) –$2.50 We’re behind schedule
CV BCWP – ACWP ($7.50 - $9.00) –$1.50 We’re over budget
SPI BCWP / BCWS 0.75 25% behind schedule
CPI BCWP / ACWP 0.833 17% over budget
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9. What’s Going To Happen At The End
Of The Project?
Forecasting our production
IEAC BAC / CPI ($50.00 / 0.833) $60.00 Our plan was $50.00, darn
VAC BAC – IEAC ($50.00 – $60.00) $10.00 We’ll be $10 over budget
ISAC 5 hours / SPI (5 / 0.75) 6.67 And we’re gonna be late
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10. Can We Catch Up In Time?
10
Forecasting the future
To Complete Performance Index  (Budget – BCWP) / (EAC – ACWP)
TCPI  (50.00 – 7.50) / (500.00 – 9.00) 1.036
 42.50 / 41.00

11. A Simple EVMS Chart
(The linear form is never this way in practice, it is an S-Curve)
$50.00
$40.00
BCWS SV
in $ CV
$30.00
$20.00 SV in hours
ACWP
$10.00
BCWP
Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3 Hour 4 Hour 5
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12. PUTTING THESE “SIMPLE”
CONCEPTS INTO PRACTICE
EVMS can be deployed in many ways. For us the straight
forward way is to “micro–schedule” the work activities.
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13. A Micro–Schedule
 Micro–scheduling does NOT mean micro–managing.
 It means planning at a sufficient level of detail to
identify useful tasks that can be measured in days (3 to
5) or at most a week.
 Micro–schedules consists of:
 Objective completion criteria – so we know when we are
done.
 “Budgets” and “Values” – usually representing person days
and some “measurable” value to the customer in terms of
dollars.
 Planned Completion Dates – so we know when to expect
these tasks to be done.
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14. Some Fundamental Concepts of EVMS
 Never relate what was planned to be spent (BCWS) to
the actual amount spent (ACWP).
 This tells us nothing of value
 It can warp our thinking into attempting to under–spend our
allowed amount to report favorable numbers.
 Only report what was actually spent (ACWP) against what
“value” was delivered for that planned investment (BCWP)
 Cost Performance (CV) reports what has been
accomplished (BCWP) versus what was invested to
accomplish that work (ACWP).
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15. 15/31
A FRAMEWORK FOR
DEPLOYING EVMS
Let’s do it the simple way with some common sense†

16. First the Bad News
16

17. ANSI/EIA–748A–2002 And Success Criteria Of
Earned Value Management
 The EIA 748 specification calls out 32 performance
criteria required for compliance.
 These criteria are too complex for our “agile”
environment.
 There are 10 key criteria that can be deployed
here.
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18. ANSI/EIA–748A–2002 And Success
Criteria Of Earned Value Management
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19. 10 Criteria For Successful EVMS
1. Define authorized work elements
2. Identify project organizational structure
5. Provide integrated planning, scheduling, budgeting, work
authorization, and cost accumulation processes
6. Schedule the authorized work in a sequential manner that
identifies the significant task dependencies
7. Identify physical products and organizations
8. Establish and maintain time–phased budget baseline
16. Record direct costs consistently in a formal manner
23. Periodically generate project metrics
25. Develop revised cost estimates–at–completion based on
performance to date
28. Incorporate authorized changes in a timely manner
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20. 10 Criteria For Successful EVMS
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21. Define Authorized Work Elements
 Create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for all
activities at the micro–schedule level
 The scope of the entire project must be defined in order
to measure performance.
 This is a problem for agile methods, since scope evolves as
the project evolves
 Schedule major iterations on 2 to 3 week boundaries
 Generate “macro” estimates of future work and “micro”
estimates of the current iteration's work
 Defined project objectives, deliverables, and key
milestones are based primarily on experience
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22. Identify Project Organizational
Structure
 Identify the structure of the functional organizations
performing the work
 Define all organizational elements responsible for
delivering value
 Identify who is doing what and what value they are
delivering
 Assign all tasks to specific named resources
 Identify the major milestones and those responsible
for meeting the commitments represented by these
milestones
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23. Provide Integrated Planning, Scheduling, Budgeting,
Work Authorization, And Cost Accumulation Processes
 Provide integration of the firm’s:
 Planning,
 Scheduling,
 Budgeting,
 Work Authorization
 Cost accumulation
 Project management processes should be integrated
with the WBS and the functional organization.
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24. Schedule The Authorized Work In A Sequential Manner
That Identifies The Significant Task Dependencies
 Describe the work sequence
 Identify significant dependencies required to meet
the requirements
 Identify which tasks are impeading the process of
other tasks
 Create a “master schedule” for larger projects to
connect the subordinate projects
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25. Identify Physical Products And The
Organizations That Produce Them
 All project must be able to identify and measure
physical performance
 Define metrics which convert to “planned values” into
“earned values”
 Project must specify:
 Physical Products
 Deliverables
 Outputs
 Metrics
 Milestones
 Technical performance indicators
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26. Establish And Maintain A Time–phased
Performance Measurement Baseline
 Establish initial budgets on internal management
estimates and external negotiated targets
 Budget for long–term efforts must be held at higher
levels of the organization
 Time–phased budget is required to measure
performance
 Staff
 Other Direct Costs (ODC)
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27. Record Direct Cost Consistency In A
Formal System
 “Applied Direct Costs” is the preferred method of
accounting for the accrual of “value”
 Isolate Level of Effort costs in a separate WBS
element
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28. Periodically Generate Project Metrics
 The amount of planned versus budget earned for
the work accomplished
 The amount of budget earned versus the actual
direct costs for the same work
 This is the “cost variance”
 This differentiates EVMS from other “actual versus
budget” cost analysis
 Weekly measures are now the “norm”
 Comparisons need to be detailed enough to provide
intervention opportunities
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29. Develop Revised Cost Estimates–at–completion
(EAC) Based On Performance To Date
 Compare this information with the performance
measure baseline to identify variances at
completion
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30. Incorporate Authorized Changes In A
Timely Manner
 All changes must be addressed as they effect
budget and schedule
 Base changes on the estimated amount and
assignment to functional organizations needs to be
recorded as well
 All approved changes must be incorporated into the
project baseline
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31. Ten Benefits of EVMS
 It is a single management control system to provide reliable and consistent
data on project performance.
 It integrates work, schedule, and cost using a work breakdown structure.
 The associated database of completed projects is useful for comparative
analysis.
 The cumulative cost performance index (CPI) provides an early warning
signal.
 The schedule performance index provides an early warning signal.
 The CPI is a predictor for the final cost of the project.
 It uses an index–based method to forecast the final cost of the project.
 The “to-complete” performance index allows evaluation of the forecasted
final cost.
 The periodic (e.g., weekly or monthly) CPI is a benchmark.
 The management by exception principle can reduce information overload.
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