Project Management and Earned Value Management Effectively managing complex projects requires an intricate balance of computational skills, prescient preparation, and a keen sense of adaptability when contingencies inevitably occur. The interplay between a project's scope, time, and cost is ever evolving, and this unpredictability presents project managers with an unending stream of data points and ratios through which success or failure can ultimately be determined. One of the most valuable concepts to emerge within the field of modern project management is known as earned value management (EVM), and this formula represents "a project performance measurement technique that integrates scope, time, and cost data" (Schwalbe, 2011). By applying the precise analytical power of EVM to one's specific work breakdown structure (WBS), a project manager can easily begin to decipher the flood of data every major project generates to accurately assess that project's...

The benefits of using EVM practices are manifold, because this technique allows project managers to measure their project's current progress against a predetermined baseline, or "the original project plan plus approved changes" (Schwalbe, 2011). Earned value management "involves calculating three values for each activity or summary activity from a projects WBS & #8230; planned value (budget), actual cost, and earned value" (Schwalbe, 2011), and this flexibility affords project managers with the invaluable ability to apply crucial variances and indexes while generating highly accurate estimates and forecasts. By transforming the wealth of data generated by EVM into immersive charts and graphs, project managers are capable of comprehending the pace and production of their project's in a multitude of beneficial ways, from the estimate at completion (EAC) to the schedule performance index (SPI).
The practices…