<P> The construction industry was an early commercial adopter of EVM . Closer integration of EVM with the practice of project management accelerated in the 1990s . In 1999, the Performance Management Association merged with the Project Management Institute (PMI) to become PMI's first college, the College of Performance Management . The United States Office of Management and Budget began to mandate the use of EVM across all government agencies, and, for the first time, for certain internally managed projects (not just for contractors). EVM also received greater attention by publicly traded companies in response to the Sarbanes - Oxley Act of 2002 . </P> <P> In Australia EVM has been codified as standards AS 4817 - 2003 and AS 4817 - 2006 . </P> <P> It is helpful to see an example of project tracking that does not include earned value performance management . Consider a project that has been planned in detail, including a time - phased spend plan for all elements of work . Figure 1 shows the cumulative budget (cost) for this project as a function of time (the blue line, labeled PV). It also shows the cumulative actual cost of the project (red line, labeled AC) through week 8 . To those unfamiliar with EVM, it might appear that this project was over budget through week 4 and then under budget from week 6 through week 8 . However, what is missing from this chart is any understanding of how much work has been accomplished during the project . If the project was actually completed at week 8, then the project would actually be well under budget and well ahead of schedule . If, on the other hand, the project is only 10% complete at week 8, the project is significantly over budget and behind schedule . A method is needed to measure technical performance objectively and quantitatively, and that is what EVM accomplishes . </P> <P> Consider the same project, except this time the project plan includes pre-defined methods of quantifying the accomplishment of work . At the end of each week, the project manager identifies every detailed element of work that has been completed, and sums the EV for each of these completed elements . Earned value may be accumulated monthly, weekly, or as progress is made . </P>

The principles and practice of earned value management