Back to basics - Earned Value Management for beginners

Earned value management is a project control process based on a structured approach to planning, cost collection and performance measurement.

Earned value helps us manage a project by:

• providing data to enable objective measurement of project status;
• providing a basis for estimating final cost;
• predicting when the project will be complete;
• supporting the effective management of resources;
• providing a means of managing and controlling change.

Earned value provides information which enables effective decision making by knowing:

• what has been achieved of the plan;
• what it has cost to achieve the planned work;
• if the work achieved is costing more or less than was planned;
• if the project is ahead of or behind the planned schedule.

Good planning leads to good project execution and good management information.