Earned value project management method and extensions

Earned value management (EVM) integrates three critical project management elements--cost, schedule, scope--into a system that enables project managers to effectively gauge project performance and forecast potential project problems. This article discusses EVMs major components and explains the graphical tools that project managers can use to assess project performance trends. In doing so, it discusses EVMs development, defines its key components, outlines the calculations for determining project variances and variance percentages and for gauging performance indices and the critical ratio. It then details the process of creating forecasts of cost at completion, variance at completion, and completion time; it outlines logical extensions and useful simplifications of EVM that can help project managers more effectively manage their projects and identify formulas that provide them with a more intuitive understanding of their projects cost performance index (CPI).