One of the most critical problems that project management professionals face is the management of the performance on their project. The two most common challenges a project manager faces in any industry are cost and schedule overruns. In many instances there is no forewarning; schedule slips, costs soar and often quality is also impacted; the project manager is faced with the near impossible task of explaining why each impact occurred and why the root-causes were not addressed early in the project.
Performance measurement as the basis to manage projects, programs and portfolios, is becoming increasingly important for project-based organizations. Developed as joint effort between NASA and the US Department of Defence (DoD), back in the mid-60s, Earned Value Management (EVM) has been maturing and evolving over the last decades as the global de facto standard for performance measurement and project control, having deserved the attention of the most prominent standardization organizations like ISO, CPM, AACE International and the Project Management Institute (PMI), all of which have recently developed global standards specific for the implementation, adoption and certification in Earned Value Management.
Salvo’s masterclass will provide stakeholders with reliable data and quantitative information about the project status and performance, so that more effective decisions can be devised to improve a project’s success. The adoption of EVM implies a cultural change towards objectivity, proactivity and opportunity management, where variation, deviations and changes are all the source for developing knowledge, gaining better understanding and improving a project. EVM is also the foundation for auditability in projects. The traditional alternatives to project control without EVM is the sole use of intuitive and empirical decision-making based on personal experience confined to managers’ “comfort-zones”, the use of financial cash-flow control metrics (which clearly fail to see the whole picture), or, at best, “home-made” metrics which do not capitalize on existing standards knowledge, nor provide a basis for benchmarking, a common-language, auditability and a basis for continuous improvement. Knowing EVM and being updated to the latest developments constitutes a key requirement for all professionals involved in making or influencing management and business decisions in projects, programs and portfolios.
