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There are three main areas that will greatly affect the long term success of your EVMS. If you think of your EVMS as a pirate ship, these three areas would be: the map used for navigation (strategy), the crew on board the ship (personnel), and the tools made available for propelling and steering the ship—such as the sail or oars (software). Let’s break down these specific areas and see how they affect your EVMS success over the long haul:
Strategy. The map used by the pirates must not be torn, held upside down, or illegible. How can you get to your destination if your map is garbage? The strategy is the design and implementation of the EVMS, as well as the procedures for how to use and maintain the system. A poor strategy will kill the EVMS—just think of all the headaches you may have if your system doesn't have the appropriate interfaces and you’re updating too much manually. That’s a ripe condition for human error and a massive waste of time for little value added. The design of your system needs to be fully planned and mapped. Identify your requirements, then design your steps and interfaces in support of the requirements. Look for ways you can automate tasks, or reduce the production and revision cycles. Also consider: your strategy will determine the reliability of the data in the system because it manages your inputs and outputs. This is your basic “junk in, junk out” scenario. Why is this so important for long term EVMS success? Well, if you’re a manager looking at junk on a project performance report, are you going to rely on those numbers? Are you going to trust the people who generated it? Nope. Hence the death of your EVMS.
Personnel. The crew on your ship includes everyone from the captain to the cook. First, let’s examine the captain, or “management”. If management does not support the EVMS wholeheartedly, then it is setup for failure from the beginning. You see, long term EVMS success requires not just a commitment by management, but also a belief in its value—so much so that they live and breathe the EVMS. It needs to be fully saturated and ingrained in the corporate culture. Why? If they don’t believe in it, they won’t use the outputs for decision making. Then, at some point they will stop providing funding and support for managing it simply because they don’t see the value in it. That affects the project managers, because they may be trying to use the data to show project performance and get management support, but their case won’t have any “teeth”. They won’t be able to use authority to get activities done, especially activities in other departments in a matrix or functional organizational structure. In these scenarios, the EVMS becomes a token or a show, not a real tool—and tokens don’t get funding.
The other crucial aspect of personnel involves having the right people doing the right jobs. Too many times, companies will use a finance person to manage the EVMS (especially smaller companies, or those new to Earned Value). The problem is that most finance folks do not have the understanding or respect of Earned Value inputs and outputs. They end up having difficulties during monthly status but even more so during baseline changes. Likewise, some companies will use a scheduler to perform cost activities, or cost engineers to create and maintain schedules. These ill fitted placements mean more mistakes and inaccurate data. To stretch this idea even further, consider how a manager with a very traditional business sense may see project performance versus someone well versed in project management and Earned Value. The traditional manager may try to use the EV data to beat up the project manager and team, because he doesn’t fully understand Earned Value. This will cause the team to hide their performance on the reports, and then the concept of an EVMS is undermined. A manager seasoned in EV will know that the data is to be used as early warning indicators for improved decision making and management support, not for hanging people. So make sure the right people are in the right jobs, and the results will improve your EVMS instead of hampering it.
Tools. Our pirate ship uses sails, oars, cannons, guns, etc. to get where they need to go and kill their enemies. In the realm of EVMS, your most important tool is your software. This includes your software for scheduling, accounting, EV processing, change management, reporting, work management, and so on. Also in this category is the ease of interfaces between these tools. The simple answer is to find software that is logical, intuitive, and can easily “talk” to all of your systems. If you purchase EV software that is complex and cumbersome, you’re going to have problems with users and likely interfaces. People tend to use things that are easy and “feel good”. If your software requires 37 steps each month for statusing and reporting, then the user may get frustrated, miss a step, complete the steps out of order, etc., all of which impact the timeliness and reliability of your data. Simplicity is key, and you don’t have to sacrifice flexibility and power for ease of use. Just do your research and ask around. Remember, even if you have a great strategy and your management lives and breathes the EVMS, you can still fail if you don’t have the right tools. However, if management really is committed, then they will quickly figure out that the software is a problem and will find the money to buy the right software, and possibly bring in consultants to design, implement, test, train, etc.
Ultimately, for long term success, Earned Value has to be an integral part of managing projects within the organization. If you keep that idea in your mind, the three areas of focus, strategy, personnel, and tools, will fall into place easily. Do you have any experience with the success or failure of an EVMS?
- Melissa Duncan (About Melissa)
Read the previous posting - Passing the Snicker Test: 5 Tips for Improving the Measurement of Work Performed
Earned Value legend as there may be a few of us that don’t yet have this memorized…
CA=Control Accounts
CAM=Control Account Manager
CPI=Cost Performance Index
EAC=Estimate At Completion
CAM=Control Account Manager
CPI=Cost Performance Index
EAC=Estimate At Completion
EVM=Earned Value Management
EVMS=Earned Value Management System
EVT=Earned Value Techniques
EAC=Estimate At Completion
IPMR=Integrated Program Management Report
LOE=Level of Effort
OBS=Organizational Breakdown Structure
OTB=Over Target Baseline
PC=Project Controls
PM=Project Manager
PMB=Performance Measurement Baseline
RAM=Responsibility Assignment Matrix
SPI=Schedule Performance Index
WBS=Work Breakdown Structure
