A colleague - Pat Barker (adjunct Professor at the Defense Acquisition University) - has a short piece in this issue of Defense AT&L, where he and his co-author Roy Wood speak to the fundamental failing of Earned Value Management.
This is not the application of EVM, the processes of EVM, or any of the common myths around EVM.
No, it is the failure to understand that the 5 Immutable Principles of any successful project
- Do we know where we are going?
- Do we know how to get there?
- Do we have everything we need to get there?
- Do we know what impediments we'll encounter along the way?
- Do we know how to measure our progress in units meaningful to the decision makers?
Earned Value Management contributes to 1, 2, 3, 4 and is the full basis of success for 5.
So if your project is not applying EVM, then it is foregoing a Critical Success Factor, and likely forgoing this factor on purpose. Long ago, I worked as a program manager where billions were at stake and people died if serious mistakes were made. The site had the normal poster campaign for safety. One of the best posters was
Don't do stupid things on purpose
If you don't have credible answers to each of the 5 Immutable Principles, you're doing just that.
Here's an example of applying the 5 Immutable Principles in the development of software.
