This recommended practice (RP) is intended to provide guidance for planning, performing, managing, and controlling the variance analysis process. Earned value management (EVM) practitioners would consider this guidance to be advisable for analyzing earned value (EV) metrics and addressing any potential influences to project execution. The target audience for this RP is anyone with a need to understand how to prepare an EV variance analysis and perform a root cause analysis.

As with all AACE International recommended practices, this document is not intended to be a standard, but provides further clarification of recommended EVM practices as they apply to planning, implementation, and reporting a variance analysis.

This RP is aligned with the Total Cost Management Framework, as well as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Electronics Industries Alliance (EIA) - 748 Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS) guidelines (Guidelines 22-26). This document also provides further explanation of the intent and application of level of effort (LOE) that is not contained in the ANSI/EIA-748 standard and the National Defense Industries Association (NDIA) Earned Value Management Systems Intent Guide.