• Your Project Sponsor is not familiar with earned value management (EVM). You have been asked to provide him with a quick overview of EVM. Using the information covered in the readings, suggest the top three (3) EVM performance measures you would educate your Project Sponsor on. Also, identify other performance factors beyond EVM that you would communicate to your sponsor. Provide a rationale for your selection of topics.

Peers Response

Peter Heinlein

RE: Week 9 Discussion: Educating Your Project Sponsor on EVM

First I would explain the Earned Value cost/schedule system and the acronyms and equations used for analysis. Without an understanding of the basics of the program, I would be speaking of their heads and having to explain basic terms during the brief. I would then use scheduled variance and cost variance to prepare hierarchical status reports for each level of management. They would include roll-ups by unit and deliverables and actual-time performance that can be checked against the actual project schedule. Using EVM to show how the project is actually moving and what is being spent would most likely be the sponsor’s key concern and being able to quantify and show them a provable result would be effective and gain support to the project manager.