Earned Value Management

What is Earned Value Management?

Have been working on same for past 6 months so thought of putting in my perspective on the blog. Loads of data can be obtained from the net from just typing it out on Google. It essentially is a Tracking and Monitoring methodology for checking on project performance in $ terms .It assists project manager by providing objective, accurate and timely data for effective decision making.

Basic concept:

I got budget for an activity to be done (BAC- Budget At Completion).

I divide the activity into sub tasks and assign $ value to each (PV-Planned Value).

Now I measure at regular intervals (weekly /monthly /quaterly /yearly) based on activity period how much work got done with respect to what was planned . This is called as EV(Earned Value). Since I am getting the $ value against all the work which I accomplish it is called Earned Value.I will earn same $ after completing the task against $ I had planned for.

How much did it cost me in actual $ to perform that activity , how much I had to spend in actual to complete the task is referred as AC (Actual Cost). This is most likely to be different from the planned $ for a particualr task.

PV, EV & AC constitute the basic EVM.

As one can see from the chart EVM gives project manager a perspective of project both from schedule and cost angle in $ terms. All curves are cumulative figures. PV at end is equal to BAC.

There are various metrics derived out of these basic values:

EV-AC - Cost Variance(CV)

EV-PV - Schedule Variance(SV) * in dollar terms

EV/AC - Cost Performance Index(CPI)

EV/PV - Schedule Performance Index(SPI)

CPI*SPI- Cost Schedule Index (CSI)

BAC/CPI- Estimate at Completion (EAC) gives an estimate of cost of completion of activity based on current cost performance

EAC-BAC - Variance at Completion(VAC)

EAC-AC - Estimate to Complete (ETC)

Quite simple yet very powerful tracking and monitoring method . Since gives $ value perspective very well understood by all.

Jaewoo's Visit

Jaewoo was in India on a business trip for 2-3 weeks, shuffling between Mumbai and Delhi.
(catching up with MBA batchmates at Great India Place Mall, Noida - Manish, Dips, Jaewoo,Sumeet & Anshul)

Current Workplace

HCL's building in Sector -60 Noida , U.P., India.

The Search

The latest read is an fascinating book on how the search has become the most important thing in recent years, how it is evolving and impacting our lives. Though neglected for quite a while in the earlier development where companies did not see any revenue model from search itself until Google showed the world power of search...... though Google was not the first one to do it but became the most popular.The book talks about the history of search , its current form and whats it going to be like in the coming future. There are very interesting insights of Google and its rivals covered in the book .
More review here.

NANO - TATA's Revolution

Tata unveiled its new small car on 10-Jan-08 in Auto Expo 2008 held in New Delhi. It has left all the other players in the automobile market surprised and a look of "Aww". Given its low price( 1 Lakh INR /US $2500) and the features it has it surely stands out as a winner. Though the car will be on the roads only by October 08, the hype it has generated in the market is immense. The TATA website is now among the top searched website on the net becuase of the NANO phenomenon. In the recently held Geneva show in Switzerland too it was a star attraction. One can check out the comeplte details about Nano here.

Helping 1 child( World Vision)

Came across this brochure of the organization called World Vision. It is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.Organization was started by an American Bob Pierce in 1953 in Korea to help out children orphaned in Korean War.
Children always delight me and when I have an opportunity to help out one such needy kid, then why not :). Also gives me more satisfaction when I can see where and on what the money is being spent. I decided to sponsor a girl named SAPNA(in Hindi meaning a dream ). I received this picture stand with details of SAPNA. I came to know through same where SAPNA is living in India, which class she is studying in, what her parents do, what's her favorite subject.

Closure of Chennai Chapter.....

Finally the Chennai chapter came to a closure ...with new opportunity to work for an Israeli client COMVERSE engagement in Noida starting 18th December. It had been a memorable journey of 6 months with company of very good roomies( Kaushik, Aditya and Srivatsav aka Chiru) as well as MBA colleagues Sachin and Meena. I still recall Sachin laughing at me the day I told him I am posted in chennai and 2 months later he landed up being at same place with a job in Cognizant. Happened to get to know Aditya's girlfriend Shweta as well as Chiru's girlfriend Priya also. Both excellent cooks. Description of all people mentioned above I will leave for some later time. To my surprise just a week before leaving got this parting gift from Shweta. In spite of asking many times she didnt disclose where she got it from . Anyways liked it very much...though had to search on google/wikipedia for what it is actually called.
(Wine Flask)