A recent McKinsey report estimates that 98 percent of large-scale projects face cost overruns or delays, and the average cost increase is 80 percent. With the complexity involved for such projects, it’s far too easy for stakeholders to discover that their budgets are underwater only when it’s far too late to make a difference. But suppose there was a way to reliably predict when a project was going to finish, and how much it was going to cost, at less than 20% of the way in? This is the extraordinary, under-hyped ability of Earned Value Management (EVM).

This paper will explain the core principles of EVM and identify best-fit approaches to implementing those principles. Project management professionals should be able to use this information to demonstrate that an EVM system can be successfully executed within their organization, thus convincing executives and decision-makers that EVM isn’t a process they should be wary of but rather something that should be a part of their overall project management plan.