The Canadian Government's approach to specification of Earned Value Management is described in the "Principles of Application" and a carefully written explanation of how the Canadian Government approaches the application and implementation in the "Guidance on Interpretation and Implementation"
The Principles of Application state:
"This standard provides principles of application for effective project performance management. These principles include the following:
And the Standard's declaration .. "In a contract environment, it is the intent of this standard that the contractor decides how best to comply with the requirements.".. is of particular interest and impact on contractors management systems where the Canadian Project Performance Management Standard is called up in RFP and contract requirements.
This Performance Management Standard should be required reading for project management practitioners who are involved in the development and implementation of an Earned Value Management System. A copy of the Canadian Standards Board Project Performance Management Standard is on line.
A California Management Review by Charalambos L. Iacovou and Albert S. Dexter
Information systems projects with substantial cost and time overruns are the order of the day.. This inclusiveness and major impact much study has recently been given over to the study of what went wrong and determind how to manage these runaway projects or how to effect a recovery strategy.
This article in the California Management Review of information system consultants suggests According to these experts,
are the key actions that must be pursued in a comprehensive recovery effort.
[ More ] Editors note: reprint rates apply.
by Dragan Z. Milosevic
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003, 584 pages, ISBN: 0-471-20822-1
Traditionally, project management tools and techniques have been seen as vehicles for reaching an objective or, more specifically, a project deliverable. However, most project management literature describes individual tools and, at best, loosely gathers them into a quasi-toolbox to aid the project or program manager in doing the job more effectively. The business community now has Project Management ToolBox by Dragan Z. Milosevic. The author makes a strong case for the need for a more systematic and pre-constructed project management toolbox, one that is of significantly more value than the simple sum of its individual tools.
Milosevic develops a new role for project management tools and the toolbox in three distinctive ways
The book content is clearly and logically organized by project management process – initiating, planning, implementing, and closing – and then by practical applications. This helps users locate tools according to use, i.e., to support one or more specific deliverables in the project management process. Also, it reinforces the applications aspect of the toolbox for a standardized, company-specific project management process.
Chapter 1 builds the case for a project management toolbox that supports the competitive strategy of the company, the focus shifts. Chapters 2 to 15 act as a repository of over 50 tools - from basic (e.g. Gantt chart and WBS) to intermediate (e.g. Commitment scorecard and Bubble diagrams) to advanced tools (e.g. Earned Value and AHP) - explaining how-to’s for each of them, another aspect often neglected in the traditional project management literature.
Tools necessary for initiating projects, for committing an organization to bringing projects to life, are covered in Part I. Part II features tools for planning projects, needed to chart a realistic roadmap to prepare the project for the future and accomplish its business goals. Executing, controlling, and closing projects is what the tools in Part III target. Using all of these tools as basic building blocks, Part IV shows how to build a toolbox as well as real-world examples of these toolboxes.
This is done by means of a unique situational framework to help the reader select those tools that best fit the specific situation. In addition, clear correspondence between the tools covered in the book and the Project Management Institute’s popular A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge is established.
The Project Management ToolBox offers an extensive set of tools that goes beyond the limits of generic domains and also takes the guesswork out of when and how to use them in order to support the project management process and to deliver concurrent projects as dictated by a company’s strategy for competitiveness and profitability. It also describes how to link project goals and practices and the organization’s mission, and it offers much value to managers of organizations of any size or endeavour.
Reviewed by Jovica R. Riznic, PhD., P.Eng., Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Ottawa, CANADA ( riznicj@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca).
Value Magazine is the journal of the Institute of Value Management (IVM) in the UK but with a readership spread around the world. It is published three times a year (February, June and October). The magazine is free to members and can be sent to non-members (post or email) either as a single issue or years subscription (3 issues) after payment of the current rate, for which the IVM website www.ivm.org.uk has further current information.
Value Magazine endeavours to facilitate discussion, reflection and action concerning the central theme of value across all sectors of application – private, public, large and small projects, products and services. It welcomes good quality contributions on germane themes from all parts of the world. Some broad ideas on length and possible subject are given on the first page of the link that includes guidelines on contribution format. See Guidelines for Publication on the website.
Value Magazine whilst always welcoming good articles on a wide range of subjects generally carries a focus or theme around which a number of articles may be linked. Forthcoming themes are as follows: