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Earned Value Project Management, 3rd Edition

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"Earned value" is a project management technique that is emerging as a valuable tool in the management of all projects, including and, in particular, software projects. In its most simple form, earned value equates to fundamental project management.
This is not a new book, but rather it is an updated book. Authors Quentin Fleming and Joel Koppelman have made some important additions. In many cases, there will be no changes to a given section. But in other sections, the authors have made substantial revisions to what they had described in the first edition.
Fleming and Koppelman's goal remains the same with this update: describe earned value project management in its most fundamental form, for application to all projects, of any size or complexity. Writing in an easy-to-read, friendly, and humorous style characteristic of the best teachers, Fleming and Koppelman have identified the minimum requirements that they feel are necessary to use earned value as a simple tool for project managers. They have also witnessed the use of simple earned value on software projects, and find it particularly exciting. Realistically, a Cost Performance Index (CPI) is the same whether the project is a multibillion-dollar high-technology project, or a simple one hundred thousand-dollar software project. A CPI is a CPI … period. It is a solid metric that reflects the health of the project.
In every chapter, Fleming and Koppelman stick with using simple stories to define their central concept. Their project examples range from peeling potatoes to building a house. Examples are in round numbers, and most formulas get no more complicated than one number divided by another.
Earned Value Project Management—Second Edition may be the best-written, most easily understood project management book on the market today. Project managers will welcome this fresh translation of jargon into ordinary English. The authors have mastered a unique "early-warning" signal of impending cost problems in time for the project manager to react.

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Product Details

Author:	Quentin W. Fleming
Paperback:	232 pages
Publisher:	Project Management Institute
Publication Date:	2006-02
ISBN:	1930699891
Package Length:	9.9 inches
Package Width:	7.0 inches
Package Height:	0.7 inches
Package Weight:	0.95 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 17 reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.0

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Too much narrative .. needs examples Jan 17, 2008
This is a book that talks a lot about Earned Value in terms of history and usefulness; how it advanced since 1967 C/SCSC to today's EVM standard.
To my amazement, unfortunately, this book does NOT show you how to calculate EARNED VALUE. It keeps talking about how to use it to assess progress and predict future progress but it does not show how to get it.
This is a MAJOR flaw in my opinion.

I finished reading the book and I am disappointed. It needs more examples. There are better books in the market on this.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:

Earned Value Simplified Aug 11, 2007
I wish I had had this book much earlier in my project management career! The authors of this book are able to bring the esoteric aspects of Earned Value to the masses. Reading this text is easy - not like a reading text book - and the authors provide (somewhat) "real life" case studies to back up their examples.

One author claims to be an expert in Earned Value, and I believe it after reading his explanations - he is able to cut to the essence of the idea without leaving the important details behind. This book is worth the money, especially if you've read other text about Earned Value - you'll appreciate the simplicity of this one.

Brings EVMS into perspective Mar 23, 2007
Fleming and Koppelman have done a decent job of bringing the complex subject of Earned Value Management into perspective. Starting with an interesting history of the subject from its beginnings in 1965, they have broken the subject down into its components and given a clear explanation of the fundamentals. If you're planning on working in the EVMS field any time soon, I would recommend this as a good starting point to familiarize yourself with the subject.

16 of 18 found the following review helpful:

Where is the rest? Aug 16, 2004
So far I have found two books dedicated to the topic of earned value: this book by Fleming and Koppelman and another book entitled `Using Earned Value' by Alan Webb. Note that I am not listing the earned value `Cliff notes' entitled `Project Management: The Commonsense Approach" by the Lamberts, which will not add to your understanding of earned value management or analysis, and serves, at best, as a memory jogger on the basic concepts.

"Earned Value Project Management, Second Edition" by Fleming and Koppelman provides a good treatment of the history of earned value and of the calculation methods of its core measurements. However the book falls short in terms of methods of analysis and interpretation of these measurements, which is really where project managers need guidance and expertise. Indeed calculations are automated by the scheduling packages (e.g. Microsoft Project, Primavera, etc.), in other words getting the numbers is never the problem (although some packages have had their share of problems doing this), or let's just say it's the easy part. Obviously one needs to understand how the numbers are calculated and what they mean but this part of earned value does not require a whole book about it. The true challenge in earned value management is the analysis part. Once you have the numbers, you need to understand what they mean to your project, how they trend, how they relate/influence one another and most importantly how you should use them in gauging the health of your project. This information then needs to be translated in either corrective actions (which are hopefully proportional to the problem at hand) or inaction (provided that you have made the conscious decision, based on the data, to keep things as they are). I believe that this is where this book falls short. It gives the reader an understanding of the concepts but lacks in the guidance that is required for a true, practical, and day-to-day application of earned value on projects. In another words, it's a good start but not quite enough.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

One of the best books on Earned Value! Jul 19, 2004
The reader that is familiar with Project Management Institute books will find it extremely useful and connected to real life. Presents Earned Value definition and how is possible to organize your projects based on Earned Value principles. If you're interested to have results oriented projects, or if you're interested in project performance, or project monitoring, this book is really helpful. I highly reccomend you to read and use it. If you like "not so academic" books, you might find it a little bit too condensed, and probably you'll need to search for something else. Microsoft Projects offers very good definitions of Earned Value, Cost Performance Index and Schedule Performance Index that you might learn as first steps.