Project management can often be deceived into making poor decisions with confidence, due to discrepant Earned Value information. The conventional Earned Value indices for cost and schedule, when taken at face value, can cause masking of the actual performance. Additionally, forensic-designed and budget-based Earned Value systems utilizing monthly performance measurement miss the mark by allowing risk-critical issues to go undetected for weeks or months. With duration-based costs representing a substantial portion of project costs, the time lag in identifying trends and getting credible information to decision-makers increases the probability for an adverse project outcome.

This is further complicated by experience gaps stemming from our aging demographic. These gaps have prompted many organizations to implement “management by rule” approaches, attempting to “check” quality into the work products. This disengages many bright minds who then become mechanistic promulgating more quality issues. A Best Value Performance Measurement (BVPM) execution approach utilizes focused and engaged personnel backed by consistent and responsive processes and systems to deliver cost and schedule certainty through a more objective risk-centric, value-driven strategy.