Implementing Project Portfolio Management: From Organization Structure to Recognized Revenue · Module 10 · Budgeting, Forecasting and Progress
Earned value basics
Lesson 109 of 198 · 1 min
PLANNED VALUE · EARNED VALUE · ACTUAL COST. Everything in earned value derives from those three. Two indices: cost performance and schedule performance. Below one is bad; above one is either good or a data problem. That second clause matters. An index comfortably above one is worth investigating before it is celebrated. What earned value needs. All three: A BASELINE · RELIABLE PROGRESS · ACCURATE ACTUALS. IF PROGRESS REPORTING IS UNRELIABLE, EARNED VALUE IS CONFIDENT NONSENSE. Confident is the operative word. The arithmetic will produce clean indices from bad progress data and nothing will indicate a problem. When it is worth it: long, structured programmes with well-defined deliverables — capital projects, government work, engineering programmes. Rarely worth the overhead on short consulting engagements. Scoped honestly: this is an introduction. A full earned value implementation is a specialist topic, and a client requesting it needs a specialist conversation.
The full lesson is part of the course
The video, the complete written lesson and the module quiz are included in Implementing Project Portfolio Management: From Organization Structure to Recognized Revenue, with a certificate on completion and a fourteen-day refund window.