Articles for EVM and integrated program management professionals looking to maximize the implementation and use of performance measurement techniques.
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Assessing the Impact of Front Loading on the CPI and EAC
Posted: 01/02/2012
Since the early 1970's, Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS) have been recognized throughout the project management community as a useful early warning system. The early visibility to cost and schedule variances and concomitant project overruns and schedule slippages, are both friend and foe. A project manager who is conscientious and possesses strategic management skills appreciates the early visibility. A more myopic manager may view the early alert as an enemy that can impact career opportunities and bring about early project cancellation. The potential of early project cancellations is, and always will be, one of the downsides to early cost and schedule information. For some, living with latent unease is better than facing an unpalatable truth.
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Cost Performance Index Stability
Posted: 04/25/2023
Article by David S. Christensen and Scott R. Heise, 1993, published in the National Contract Management JournalThe cumulative Cost Performance Index (CPI) is a useful indicator to calculate the likely final cost of a completed contract. ...
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Earned Value Management System Storyboards
Posted: 04/09/2012
Earned value management system storyboards have been around since the dawn of humans and are still used today as effective communication.
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Handling Authorized Unpriced Work in an Earned Value Management System
Posted: 08/02/2012
This article discusses the issues that commonly surface with authorized unpriced work (AUW)/undefinitized contract action (UCA).
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Is the CPI-Based EAC a Lower Bound to the Final Cost of Post A-12 Contracts?
Posted: 04/24/2023
Article by David S. Christensen and David A. Rees, 2002, published in the Journal of Cost Analysis and Management
This article discusses several methods used to evaluate the likely final cost of a defense acquisition contract, the ...
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Is the Cumulative SCI-Based EAC an Upper Bound to the Final Cost of Post A-12 Defense Contracts?
Posted: 04/24/2023
Article by David S. Christensen, 2004, published in the Journal of Cost Analysis and ManagementThis article discusses several methods to evaluate the predicted final cost of a defense acquisition contract, the Estimate at Completion (EAC) using ...
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Level of Effort (LOE)
Posted: 01/02/2012
Level of Effort (LOE) Earned Value Method - a discussion of Levelo of Effort and best practices for calculating LOE earned value
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Level of Effort (LOE) Replanning
Posted: 11/05/2012
This article discusses how to avoid Level 3 Corrective Action Requests (CARs) that can result because of a lack of attention to level of effort (LOE) planned in support of discretely measured tasks. The symptom: repeat Level 2 CARs for having “BCWP with no ACWP” or “ACWP with no BCWP”. Are there legitimate reasons for this to occur?
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Scheduling Process Maturity Level Self Assessment Questionnaire
Posted: 01/02/2012
Process improvement usually begins with an analysis of the current state. The purpose of this document is to provide a means to undertake a self assessment of your organization's current project scheduling maturity level.
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The Costs and Benefits of the Earned Value Management Process
Posted: 04/24/2023
Article by David S. Christensen, 1998, published in the Acquisition Review QuarterlyAssessments of the earned value management (EVM) process often focus on either the positives or the negatives. This article takes a different approach with the ...
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The Difference between Undistributed Budget and Management Reserve
Posted: 01/02/2012
This article discusses the primary difference between undistributed budget and management reserve as well as their intended proper uses. This explanation reflects the accepted standard since the advent of the concept known today as EVMS.
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The Effective Use of Management Reserve
Posted: 01/02/2012
Management reserve, unfortunately, is frequently subject to non-standard practices, misconceptions, and misapplication - this guide will help clarify the topic.
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The Estimate at Completion - A Project Management Best Practice
Posted: 07/25/2013
Project managers are continually asked by company management and the customer to verify that the project’s cost and schedule goals can be met within the authorized ...
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What is a Rubber Baseline?
Posted: 01/02/2012
The rubber baseline as initially defined (1970's vintage) was any change to the performance measurement baseline (PMB) that was incorporated to: 1. Avoid schedule variance. The budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) was moved with the current schedule instead of the estimate to complete (ETC) moving with the current schedule. Back in the 70's, this was referred to as "snowplowing". 2. Pull BCWS forward (robbing budget from future work effort) to temporarily hide a cost variance. This action used to be referred to as "surfing". There have been some classic examples of this over the decades, and the end result was never good. One of the more well known examples was the Navy's A-12 program which ended up being cancelled. Other contractors have lost their EVM system validations because a project used out-year budget to complete near term work effort.
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Why the PERT Method Should be Avoided or Closely Monitored
Posted: 01/02/2012
The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) earned value calculation method, or as some refer to it, the PERT formula, was developed in 1958, nine years before the advent of the Cost/Schedule Planning and Control Specification (C/SPCS). Because it was considered the forerunner of the earned value concept and involved a very simple calculation of the budgeted cost for work performed (BCWP), it became ingrained as an acceptable BCWP calculation method.
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