This recommended practice (RP) for analyzing S-curves is intended to serve as a guideline, not to establish a standard. As a recommended practice of AACE International, analyzing S-curves provides guidelines for stakeholders of a project to evaluate the current status and trends of a project in a simple graphical format.

S-curves are often developed by a project scheduler or cost engineer to indicate costs, resource usage, or performance measures over time and can be applied on a variety of project types. They are often used as a project management and/or total cost management (TCM) tool for graphical representation of project plan and actual data.

S-curves are commonly generated to support earned value performance assessment. This RP is aligned with the Total Cost Management Framework, as well as the Electronics Industries Alliance (EIA) - 748 Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS) guidelines (Guidelines 27 entirely, and components of Guidelines 22-26).

The RP provides descriptions of S-curves with the intent to improve understanding and communication among project participants and stakeholders when preparing and analyzing graphics based upon project schedule information. The RP describes different types of S-curves that may be generated in a project, provided the proper information is loaded into the schedule and the status of the information is maintained throughout the duration of the project.