Introduction

Rapid and widespread acceptance of earned value management as a “best practice” has encouraged an increasing number of institutions, both in private and public sectors, to include earned value management in their project management process.

Our five step Earned Value Management Maturity Model®, or EVM³® is a maturity model for organizations to use in implementing and improving Earned Value. Firms with an EIA/ANSI 748 compliant Earned Value Management System (EVMS) can use the EVM³ to establish Earned Value process metrics and create Earned Value improvement plans. The "Earned Value Management Maturity Model^®" book is published by Management Concepts.

Background

How do you assess an organization’s capability in applying Earned Value Management (EVM)?
What is the subset of ANSI/EIA 748 requirements which are sufficient to get started in EVM?
How do you know that your potential teammate or contractor has a competent EVM system in place?
Adoption of EVM using ANSI/EIA 748 and the cancellation of the U.S. DoD standard have left a void where a formal validation process once existed. Thus customers, teammates, and senior management  is left unsure about the real quality and usage of EVM within an organization.

The Five Levels of EVM³

Level I describes an organization with no or limited EVM implementation in place. This level provides a defined starting point for an initial implementation of EVM and does not require a large commitment of resources.

Level II defines an EVM implementation which is less than fully compliant with ANSI 748, but may be sufficient for smaller projects or for a simplified EVM implementation. The resulting initial benefits of a Level II EVM implementation are consistent with the modest investment, thus creating a positive “first use” of EVM. This encourages further use of EVM, further investment in EVM, and a goal of attaining higher levels of EVM3. Further, Level II allows for a defined, but less than full, implementation which should provide valuable project insight at a lower cost to the [Government] customer.

Level III is an ANSI/EIA 748 compliant implementation.

Level IV adds guidelines for measuring the quality of EVM data and introduces metrics for measuring the health of an Earned Value Management System.

The highest level of the EVM3, Level V, requires monitoring the efforts to improve an Earned Value Management system. Organizations with an ANSI or DoD compliant EVM implementation can use Levels IV and V as goals for improving the utility, timeliness, accuracy, and cost effectiveness of their EVM systems.

The EVM3 and its Key Process Areas are described fully in the book: The Earned Value Management Maturity Model available from Management Concepts. Nor sure? Read a PM World review.

Contact us at webinfo@mgmt-technologies.com for more information about the Model. Also be sure to visit our EVM³ assessments page.