Earned Value analysis is a method of performance measurement. Earned Value is a program management technique that uses “work in progress” to indicate what will happen to work in the future. Earned Value is an enhancement over traditional accounting progress measures. Traditional methods focus on planned accomplishment (expenditure) and actual costs. Earned Value goes one step further and examines actual accomplishment. This gives managers greater insight into potential risk areas. With clearer picture, managers can create risk mitigation plans based on actual cost, schedule and technical progress of the work. It is an “early warning” project management tool that enables managers to identify and control problems before they become insurmountable …show more content…
It enables managers to close the loop in the plan-do-check-act management cycle (PMI, 2005). Earned Value Management has become the most commonly used method of project performance measurement (Chen and Zhang 2012). Practitioners also refer to Earned Value Management concept as Earned Value Project Management, Earned Value System or Earned Value Analysis, but there is no much difference between these terminologies. Earned Value Management offers the project manager a tool to timely evaluate the general health of a project along the life of the project. Particularly Earned Value Management has been used to estimate cost and time to complete, identify cost and schedule impacts of known problems, accurately portray the cost status of a project, trace problems to their sources, portray the schedule status of a project, provide timely information on projects and identify problem areas not previously recognized (Kim and Duffey 2003). The description and derivation of Earned Value Management elements have been comprehensively described in many sources. (PMI, 2005) classifies the terminology into two categories: key parameters of Earned Value Management including Planned Value, Earned Value and Actual Cost and Earned Value Management measures (variances, indices and forecasts). Additionally the evolution of Earned Value Management concepts raised …show more content…
They defined a “cost variance” to relate “earned standards” against “actual expenses” to determine performance. It was only in 1962 that Earned Value was formally introduced on projects by the United States Navy as part of the development of the PERT/Cost methodology. In 1996 a new set of criteria were produced to encourage adoption in the private industry by making the criteria more ‘user friendly’. The National Defense Industrial Association developed these 32 criteria and named it the Earned Value Management System criteria currently embodied in ANSI/EIA748 (Cabri and Griffiths,
...eting tool that show the differences between the present value of revenues and the present value of expenses. The project can be profitable when the net present value is positive. In other words, the present value of revenues is greater than the present value of expenses. Profitability index is another tool for evaluating investment projects, which is the ratio of the PV of benefits on the PV of costs. A project can be beneficial if the profitability index is greater than 1. Also, it has the same idea as NPV that In other words, the present value of benefits is greater than the present value of costs. However, these two methods (NPV and Profitability Index) have been used to evaluate the proposal of implementing EHR.
Having known that adults are supposed to be self-directed, internally motivated and goal-oriented in the learning process, it is believed that Expectancy-Value Theory proposed by Wigfiled and his colleagues might be fruitful in explaining adults’ learning motivation in this case study.
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 project. Franklin Electronics won the contract because they had the lowest price. They developed a work breakdown structure that consisted of 45 work packages with 4 of the work packages being delivered in the first 4 months. They also developed a simple status report consisting of the work packages due, budgeted cost for work scheduled, budgeted cost for work performed, actual cost for work performed, cost variance and price variance. When they deliver the first status report, the Franklin Electronics project manager is called into an emergency meeting because Spokane Industries vice president is unhappy with the progress. In this paper, we will discuss Six Sigma process improvement for tracking time and cost, recommendations on how Franklin Electronics can use project management principles to meet their goal of improving efficiency and empowering management to make better and informed decisions through the use of Earned Value Management, how an effective Earned Value Management System contributes ...
Projects are widely used by many organizations and government institutions in the course of conducting their business. One of the reasons for this is because they have been proven to be effective in initiating change and translating strategic programs into daily activities. However, it has been established that most projects fail to deliver on time, budget, and customer specifications. In most cases, this failure is caused by over-optimism by the project management team. This over-optimism commonly referred to as optimism bias can simply be defined as overestimating the projects benefits and conversely underestimating its cost and duration time. Research have portrayed that this is often caused by failure to properly identify, understand, and manage effectively the risk associated with the project therefore putting its success at jeopardy(Mott McDonald, 2002). Fortunately, this biasness can be detected and minimized during the project gateway process.
Jugdev, K. (2012). Learning from Lessons Learned: Project Management Research Program. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration , 4(1), 13-22.
Making an investment towards a new project/product/company is hardly a simple process. Numerous factors including costs, benefits, time, and resources need to be taken into account before a decision to pursue a new project should be ventured into. At the end of the day prioritising projects and investing funds into projects that have the most potential towards favourable return on investment should be considered. Investment appraisal should not only be used for projects with a monetary return, it is also pertinent to use the tools where the return may not be easy to quantify such as training or development programs. Investment
Management tools such as 3-point estimation, critical path analysis, work breakdown structure and earned value analysis are used.
Risk management is among the most important practices in the field of project management. A successful project completion and risk management often go side by side. An interesting aspect of project management is that a project can sti...
Cost volume profit (CVP) analysis and costing for the 21st century has evolved into a very complex and difficult paradigm. Even the most gifted accountants find that grasping the entire concept of accounting for a corporation can be very mind-boggling and difficult. Yet, understanding such a fundamental principle can allow corporations to grow in ways that other, less educated, corporations can never dream to achieve and simultaneously understand the ‘bottom-line’. In this paper we will discuss value costing in the 21st century, other relevant costing methods, and the relevancy of CVP in today’s workplace.
Project management is said to be completed within time when it completed within the “triple constraints”: cost, time and quality. And in a lot of causes, one them is sacrificed so as to meet the other two. Project managers prioritize which ones are the most important.
What has been the most fulfilling or rewarding experience you have had as a college student? If applicable, how did the Honors College facilitate or enhance that experience? *
Resources are assigned to activities, and activities to cost objects based on consumption estimates. The latter utilise cost drivers to attach activity costs to outputs.” Compared to the traditional costing system, Activity Based Cost (ABC) is a lot more sophisticated and it is the most commonly used system within business although it is a lot more time consuming. For example, if a company has two products that they were selling and one was more demanding in ways that it needed a specific kind of engineering and it needed a unique way of testing. Then the other product was just manufactured through a machine the overhead activity would appear much great when the traditional system is used – absorption costing. Whereas with ABC each individual step of the process is priced which allows the company to see how much is owed in all aspects of manufacturing and selling. The use of ABC has increased rapidly over the past decades due to the fact that there is a more advanced technology in the world today and for competitors to compete they have to have top of the line products, and this is why activity based costing is being used as it ensures all aspects of costs are being considered within the price. With ABC it allows the accountant within the business to produce a more accurate representation of the product and by
During everyone 's lifetime, there is always something we hold closest to our hearts; it maybe our principles we live by, values, and even our own beliefs. Values are those things that are very important to us but never really realize how much we actually value them in our life. Have you ever been asked to define three of your main values and rip them up? I have and I never noticed how much they meant to me. Each and every one of us believes in our own personal values. These values are what gives us strength and strive us to do what makes us happy. These values are very important to us and are standards that we live by whether we realize it or not. Everyone has something we value including me. Some of the values I might think highly of,
When planning a new project, how the project will be managed is one of the most important factors. The importance of a managers will determine the success of the project. The success of the project will be determined by how well it is managed. Project management is referred to as the discipline that entails the processes of carefully planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating the organization resources so as to foster and facilitate the achievement of specific established and desired goals and meet the specific criteria of success required in the organization (Larson, 2014). Over the course of this paper I will be discussing and analyzing the importance of project management.
Yet, the gauge we use to define these things, or the level of importance they hold in our lives, can be dangerous. Again, what is our value system?