Advantages and Disadvantages of EVM

Hallows, J. (2005). Information Systems Project Management: How to Deliver Function and Value in Information Technology Projects. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com

Three factors define the success of any project; these are time, cost, and quality (Wysocki and RK 2013: 4). This paper identifies three main facets of project management that were inappropriately implemented, namely; Resourcing, Stakeholder Management, and Risk Management and how their improper implementation led to the violation of the three constraints (i.e. time, cost, and quality).

Part of the Earned Value Management technique is the monitoring of variances from the approved baseline of costs and schedule. The variances are useful in determining the overall project health and status.

The impact of Earned Value analysis in managing project cost control is undeniable. When EVM is implemented on a project, there are significant benefits to the project manager and the customer. Project manager benefits include increased visibility and control to proactively respond to issues that can impact project schedule, cost and objectives. Customer benefits include increase confidence in the PM’s ability to manage the project and track the progress of their project. Additionally, EVM provides a wealth of information for accountants. Accountants can use the data to report profitability to the investment community (Wilkens, 1991). There is a true connection between project management and corporate accounting. PMs use data provided by finance departments as inputs to determine cost performance of projects via EVM. This includes information used to create financial statements such as the cash flow statement, used to track the actual cash in hand. Said financial statements are to be crafted in compliance with the U.S. GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles). GAAP impacts every item on a qualifying financial statement. GAAP guidelines dictates how financial statements are produced every step of the way, covering hundreds of different components, according to Stanford University’s Cardinal Money Management website (Gresham, 2012). GAAP encompasses basic accounting principles and guidelines and detailed standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board

(b) Describe the EVM process used to determine how far our project is ahead of or behind schedule.

In the current business environment, the demand for project managers is ever growing. In short, project management is a provisional project constrained by time, cost and scope (A guide to the project management body of knowledge, 2013). Between the immense organization, optimization, and communication assets skilled project management brings to a project, it is easy to see why project management is a booming field of study. Furthermore, project management can be both financially and personally rewarding when long term milestones and goals come to fruition.

Once we have our project underway and our budget and schedule set, a project manager needs to be able to check their status compared to their cost and schedule. They do this using earned value management (EVM) principles. EVM is “a mechanism that can determine how much work was accomplished for the money spent.” (Venkataraman & Pinto, 2008, p. 111). This allows the project manager to see not only if at a current point in the project they are on schedule, but on budget as well at that point and estimate out the rest of the project. In the EVM area there are three main values that a project manager must know. First the planned value (PV), this is the amount

Project Management Institute. (2000). _A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (4th ed.)._

In this case, we need to investigate the status of the MED-X implementation project. The method we adopt is EVM, Earned Value Management. Earned Value Management is a project management technique for measuring project performance and progress. We measure the project performance not only as a whole, but also by performance of its components.

Project management is the discipline of using policies and procedures to manage a project from creation to competition. The intent of this paper is to assess the role of a project manager and determine if I am well suited for a career in project management. To achieve this goal, I will be discussing the following areas: job description, general career path, education requirements, salary, career outlook, and the pros and cons. I will also be interviewing a colleague that currently working as a project manager to gain a better understanding of typical duties associated with the role.

In project management, contract almost related with every level of project, such as material buying, price negotiation, customer service and payments. Supplier is another important role in project management. If contractor could give a appropriate contact to supplier, it will helps on build stable relationship, with supplier, even more, it could bargain with price of materials. However, if contract not finish at each single phases of project, it will increase negotiation time, which means definitely time delay and cost overruns. With decent contract management of project, it will simply to avoid such fundamental problems. Another explanation for contract error is worker. Human resource is also important for basic project proceeding, and it has been included in contract management as well. Similarly, all potential possibilities need considered by manager. “careful consideration need to be finished when forming the initial contract, for about what might occur during its operation, this will guarantee that things are included in the contract documents that enable effective contract management”(OGC 2010)

Spokane Industries has contracted Franklin Electronics for an 18 month product development contract. Franklin Electronics is new to using project management methodologies and have not been exposed to earned value management methodologies. Even though Franklin and Spokane have worked together in the past, they have mainly used fixed price contracts with little to no stipulations. For this project Spokane Industries is requiring Franklin Electronics to use formalized project management methodologies, earned value cost schedules, and schedules for reports and meetings. Since Franklin Electronics had had no experience with earned value management, the cost accounting group was trained in the methodology in order to bid for the

Since the early stages, the project was inundated with concerns and issues with the project scope. From the perspective of project management, the initial scope was not defined well enough. Details of the design were over looked and aspects such as the details of the air conditioning ended up increasing the original scope by $200 million. This supposedly led a prosperous project to an uncertain economic ordeal. Initial estimates of the project had been $5.5 billion and by the time of its actual completion it been delayed by a year and increased to $15

In the process of going from a non-project driven firm to a project-driven one, the greatest resistance might come from the executives including the board members, company owners and the vice president. The strong and rigid culture has been instilled in the company since 50 years and as a result, the president's preaching fell on deaf ears. Authoritative support is necessary to execute such strategies and it seems that for Macon Inc., that will be the most difficult one.

The completion of any project depends on the execution of various parameters mostly set at the beginning of the project. In order to complete the project to satisfactory levels, the project must be completed within the stipulated timelines, fall within the approximate budget and be of the required quality standards. However, most of the projects are affected by adverse changes and unforeseen events that occur during the execution period. Research shows that the magnitude of change is dependent on the size of the project, with large projects experiencing more uncertainties due to several factors including; planning and design complexity, interest groups having deferring opinions, resource availability, Economic and political climate and statutory regulations, which may necessitate change of plan. Most of the uncertainties are known to occur in the concept phase and if not intervened, they may affect the entire project. The burden falls on the management of such risk as some managers choose to ignore the uncertainties since they call for additional costs. Other inherent risks may go unnoticed and therefore remain unsolved,