Abstract
Earned value management (EVM) is a project management approach that can enhance the probability of project success. It is applied widely across different industry sectors (e.g., energy, aerospace, construction, defense, and manufacturing), generally through the use of an earned value management system (EVMS). A holistic and up-to-date literature review on EVM and EVMS does not exist. A literature review can provide a comprehensive perspective on the topic, identifying and summarizing the existing body of knowledge, as a foundation to advance the state of practice of EVM/EVMS. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the EVM/EVMS state of the art by critically reviewing academic and industry publications, with a specific focus on the maturity of EVMS and the environment surrounding its implementation. By performing a systematic literature review, the authors identified 600 publications since the inception of the EVM concept in 1962, and then narrowed down this list to 160 relevant publications from the last decade for closer review. The findings include the discovery of eight emergent themes. Of these themes, “forecasting/prediction” constitutes the largest portion of the recent literature, followed by “application of EVMS.” One interesting finding is that EVMS maturity, although being a critical topic, is only discussed in one publication. Publications focused on EVM/EVMS have increased in the last decade and significant differences were found between academia and industry literature in terms of the limitations and extensions of EVM/EVMS, EVMS environment, and compliance. A key finding is that designing a reliable EVMS should combine both technical and social aspects of implementation. This forward-looking paper provides a state-of-the-art review while highlighting gaps in the existing EVM/EVMS body of knowledge and introducing new perspectives to support EVMS research and application.
Highlights
An earned value management system (EVMS) is “an organization’s management system for project and program management that integrates a defined set of associated work scopes, schedules and budgets for effective planning, performance, and management control; it integrates these functions with other business systems such as accounting and human resources among others,” as defined by Aramali et al (2021) based on the existing literature (e.g., McGregor 2019a; Department of Energy (DOE) 2018b; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 2018a; National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) 2018b; Humphreys 2018; Anderson 2015; Stratton 2006), and informed by expert
EVM is the use of performance management information, produced from the EVMS, to plan, direct, control, and forecast the execution and accomplishment of contract/project cost, schedule, and technical performance objectives versus the plan (McGregor 2019a; DOE 2018b; International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 2018; NASA 2018a; NDIA 2018b; Humphreys 2018; Project Management Institute (PMI) 2017; Chen and Zhang 2012; Garrett and Rendon 2006)
“The main objective of this study is to identify the benefits of EVM for software projects as well as the difficulties of its application
Summary
An earned value management system (EVMS) is “an organization’s management system for project and program management that integrates a defined set of associated work scopes, schedules and budgets for effective planning, performance, and management control; it integrates these functions with other business systems such as accounting and human resources among others,” as defined by Aramali et al (2021) based on the existing literature (e.g., McGregor 2019a; DOE 2018b; NASA 2018a; NDIA 2018b; Humphreys 2018; Anderson 2015; Stratton 2006), and informed by expert practitioners.
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