Earned Value Management System (EVMS) Reliability: A Review of Existing EVMS Literature

Forward-Looking State-of-the-Art Review on Earned Value Management Systems: The Disconnect between Academia and Industry

“…Despite the growing interest of industry practitioners in compliance that leads to effective EVMS implementation to achieve project success (NDIA 2018b), understanding other EVMS success determinants such as knowledge and skills of team members and management decision-making have gained attention in the academic literature (e.g., Kwak and Anbari 2012). According to Cho et al (2020), a reliable EVMS is mature, compliant with the applicable established guidelines, supported by a strong system environment, and provides trustworthy information to inform decisionmaking. Kwak and Anbari (2012) provide visible examples of projects that failed due to reasons attributed not to compliance, but other factors such as planning and ineffective management.…”

“…Accordingly, this paper aims to address the topic of the implementation and execution of EVMS from a novel consistent perspective by building on a comprehensive literature review method focused on both EVMS maturity and environment concepts introduced recently in the literature (Aramali et al 2021;Cho et al 2020), while considering both academic and industry references to understand the status of academic research and the needs of industry practitioners. This type of review could bring both academics' and practitioners' efforts one-step closer toward building a reliable EVMS by highlighting trends and any consensus or disconnects that exist on the topic of EVM/EVMS between academia and industry.…”

“…The novel approach focuses on the maturity and environment concepts that are different but complementary dimensions of a reliable EVMS. EVMS maturity is the degree to which an implemented system, associated processes, and deliverables serve as the basis for an effective and compliant EVMS (Aramali et al 2021;Cho et al 2020). An EVMS environment is defined as the conditions (i.e., people, culture, practices, and resources) that enable or limit the ability to manage the project and program using the EVMS, serving as a basis for timely and effective decision-making (Aramali et al 2021;Cho et al 2020).…”

“…EVMS maturity is the degree to which an implemented system, associated processes, and deliverables serve as the basis for an effective and compliant EVMS (Aramali et al 2021;Cho et al 2020). An EVMS environment is defined as the conditions (i.e., people, culture, practices, and resources) that enable or limit the ability to manage the project and program using the EVMS, serving as a basis for timely and effective decision-making (Aramali et al 2021;Cho et al 2020). This approach is derived from the principle of designing efficient systems called "sociotechnical systems design," which calls for taking into consideration both technical (i.e., EVMS maturity) and human (i.e., EVMS environment) inputs when improving the efficiency of the system (Bider and Klyukina 2018;Walker 2015;Baxter and Sommerville 2011).…”

“…In their prior work, the authors of this paper classified the EVMS literature into three high-level categories: "(1) improving EVMS estimation predictability, (2) adapting EVMS for the agency's management process, and (3) improving EVMS reliability" (Cho et al 2020). Although EVMS reliability has been introduced to the body of knowledge over the last two decades (Cho et al 2020;Martens and Vanhoucke 2017;Jaeger 2014), there has not been a recent update to the existing literature since 2012 (Chen and Zhang 2012) in terms of summarizing and analyzing the EVM/EVMS body of knowledge. Cho et al (2020) identified a clear need to examine available literature addressing the improvement of EVMS reliability, to complement the progress and the findings of relevant research efforts, while also taking into account the industry's state of practice.…”