EVM - Overview

Earned Value Management (EVM) is a project management technique that objectively tracks physical accomplishment of work.

More elaborately:

• EVM is used to track the progress and status of a project and forecasts the likely future performance of the project.

• EVM integrates the scope, schedule, and cost of a project.

• EVM answers a lot of questions to the stakeholders in a project related to its performance.

• EVM can be used to show the past and the current performance of a project and predict the future performance of the project by the use of statistical techniques.

• Good planning coupled with effective use of EVM will reduce a lot of issues arising out of schedule and cost overruns.

EVM has emerged as a financial analysis specialty in United States Government programs in the 1960s, but it has since become a significant branch of project management.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, EVM emerged as a project management methodology to be understood and used by managers and executives, not just EVM specialists. Today, EVM has become an essential part of every project tracking.