SPEAKING EVERYBODY’S LANGUAGE
;e challenge, then, is for project professionals to craft their approach to EVM
in a way that delivers meaningful bene;ts without appearing cumbersome—and
retain executive stakeholder support in the process. As projects increasingly
have more moving parts, the simple but comprehensive picture EVM provides
is one of its own best selling points.
“It puts the project work in ;nancial numbers that anyone can understand,”
says Pablo Dimenza, PMP, senior project manager, Tigerspike, London, Eng-
land. “When we talk about money instead of code lines or bricks laid, we are
speaking a language that most people understand independently of their area
of expertise.”
Done correctly, EVM also gives higher-ups better insight to the progress of
the organization’s projects. “If you don’t do EVM and you just do status reports,
you won’t know the reasons for overruns,” says Victor Tran, PMP, EVM master
scheduler at IT ;rm CICI International, Washington, D.C., USA.
And EVM’s rigorous paper trail makes the lessons learned process simpler
and easier to apply to similar projects in the future, Mr. Tran says. It can even
be used at the portfolio level, to determine whether similar projects in the future
will be pro;table.
When we talk about money instead
of code lines or bricks laid, we are
speaking a language that most
people understand independently of
their area of expertise.”
—Pablo Dimenza, PMP, Tigerspike, London, England
If you don’t do EVM and you just
do status reports, you won’t know
the reasons for overruns.”
—Victor Tran, PMP, CICI International, Washington, D.C., USA
