Earned Value Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Earned Value Management - Research Paper Example Due to features that allow Earned Value Management (EVM) to fuse scope, cost and schedule tools, it can accurately predict the project outcomes. Safe project forecasting allow for better planning ahead of time and to make necessary adjustments. Moreover, various studies show that project that use EVM techniques have a higher success rate than the projects that don’t use. In addition to these benefits, EVM has also proved useful in substantiating project disputes. Different project managers use EVM according to their specific project requirements; however certain features of EVM are considered essential and can be recognized as the defining criterion for EVM techniques. These implementation features are; The main difference between projects that use EVM and the ones that do not is quantifying processes and their performances. For instance, EVM projects set specific criteria to allocate numbers to any process and its relative performance. This helps in tracking and adjusting overall performance of the project. Usually at the end of each week, the project manager reviews the progress and adds together the planned values (PV) of each individual task to calculate the Earned Value (EV). This review can be done weekly, monthly, or according to the nature of the project. To understand the governing principles of EVM it would be helpful to know that every task of a project earns value. And translating these tasks into numbers helps in analyzing the performance and make appropriate adjustments. As a result, project managers can achieve better project forecasting. Project managers compare earned values with planned values and actual costs for reviewing performance. Such comparisons help project managers and the owners of the project to calculate their return on the money spent. Another feature of EVM that makes it convenient as well as efficient is its ability to measure physical performance in dollar amounts (Kidasa, 2005). This