PART II The Basics of Earned Value

Thus far, we have reviewed some general project management information that most of you already knew. Even so, we hope you have picked up a few new ideas to store in your personal portfolio or have been made aware of a few trails to investigate later.

Now, with some common background, we begin our exploration of earned value. Many of you may not be required to use a full-blown earned value management system that adheres to the 32 criteria but want to use earned value’s metrics and reporting mechanisms. In this book, we often refer to the required complete system as EVMS and to basic parts of earned value and its metrics as EV.

Part II presents the basics of EV, along with some rules and guidelines for implementation. Chapter 3 gets to the heart of EV with both the traditional EV metrics and an introduction to those that have been developed for emerging practices (detailed in Part VII). Simple examples illustrate the calculations, and sample problems provide an opportunity for practice. Chapter 4 provides an overview of EVMS—what’s good, what’s not so good, and a big-picture view of the 32 criteria.