Pinnacle Insights

Much has been written about how complicated and difficult Earned Value Management (EVM) can be, and a term that has grown in popularity in response to this perception is “EVM Lite.” One of the problems with the term “EVM Lite” is that it suggests a version of EVM that is incomplete in some way. 

Earned Value Management (EVM) is not a perfect fit for all types of projects. For example, short-term projects, low risk projects, or projects using agile development techniques may not benefit from a full Earned Value Management System (though they may still benefit from a scaled or tailored EVMS). But for most projects, where there is a risk to on-time, on-budget delivery, and where cost and schedule need to be managed, they will do well to utilize EVM. 

Managing projects is challenging. Understanding the projects scope, managing budgets and forecasts, and delivering on time is a lot to keep up with. 

Investing in employee training and development can have significant results on your bottom line. A study by the American Society for Training and Development revealed that companies that invest in employee training gain 21% in profit.

As most of you probably are aware, Deltek MPM, currently in the Maintenance Support phase will be moving into Sustaining Support as of December 31, 2018. There will be no further updates or fixes to the software offered by Deltek after that. The state of MPM that it is currently in, will remain.

If you are in the market for a cost management tool your short list likely includes Deltek Cobra.  Cobra has a long history of playing a role in both large and small implementations of earned value tools with customers of various sizes.

Often these two terms are used interchangeably, but they mean very different things to those of us who have been implementing project management and project controls systems.  As you can imagine, explaining the difference is difficult, but it is the ultimate compliment when a client acknowledges the distinction and the contributions of our Implementation Consultants.  It just so happens that it was a recent client's praise that inspires this blog article and I hope it will generate discussion on the topic.

In Part 2 of this series, Schedule Analysis, Part 2: Why Should I Do It?, it was stated that schedule analysis increases confidence in the schedule and its results. It provides information as to where the schedule needs to be improved and how it needs to be improved.