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EVM Newsletter 
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December 2009
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Did you find this newsletter interesting? Forward it to a friend!
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2011 EVP Exam Dates |  |
Listed below are the exam date, the deadline for discounted applications, and the final date for applications. Exams are generally held nationwide (US) and selected international locations.
Check future newsletters for other 2011 dates as they are annouced.
5 March 2011
Early discount: 19 Dec
Deadline: 3 Jan
10 March 2011
Early discount: 19 Dec
Deadline: 3 Jan
26 March 2011
Early discount: 10 Jan
Deadline: 25 Jan
18 June 2011
Early discount: 20 March
Deadline: 4 April
(Anaheim, CA)
7 July 2011 (Saudia Arabia)
Early discount: 26 April
Deadline: 10 May
Always check with AACEfor revised dates and application information
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Quotable Quote | |
The nice thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by long periods of worry and depression.
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Keep Your EVM Newsletter Coming | |
On Sept 13 you should have received an e-mail titled , "Open to Renew The EVM Newsletter(unopening will CANCEL your Newsletter)".
If you have not yet please open this e-mail and click on the button to reconfirm your interest in getting The EVM Newsletter.
Those who do not open the e-mail, or fail to confirm their interest will be dropped from our list of subscribers.
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Download EVPrep Study Guide Workbook Answer Sheets
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Customers who have the spiral bound edition of "Ray Stratton's EVP (Earned Value Professional) Exam Study Guide" have three sets of blank answers sheets including in the Guide. These customers can now download and print additional answer sheets. Customers who have the downloadable Study Guide are already directed there for their answersheets.
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EVM subject of Oct 5 Webinar from
GovernmentEducator | |
Management Technologies, in cooperation with Government Educator, will conduct a webinar on EVM on October 5th from 1-2 PM ET. The session will address the use of EVM in government civilian agency contracts.
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| The Earned Value Management Maturity Model(R)
on
Books 24 x 7 | | |
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  Greetings..
Welcome to the September/October EVM Newsletter.
This is a combined edition because I won't be able to get to a mid-October issue due to travel and other commitments. The next issue will be the November issue.
The AACEI EVP exam dates list has been updated with 2011 dates. We've only listed the major exam dates where US Sections are involved. AACE is now also offering " Arranged Exams" at other locations and dates upon request.
EVM in civilian agency contracting will be the subject of a one hour Webinar on October 5 from GovermentEducator titled "Improving Project Management: Streamline your Projects, Cut Risks & Errors "
EVM Tidbit #14 discusses EVMS ANSI 748 Guideline 2.1 (c) and integration of computer held data.
EVM data on government projects should be part of "transparency". There is an article on how this might work without requiring the public to understand EVM.
Also, The EVM Newsletter will point you to a potential solution to using EVM on fixed price contracts.
The EVM Newsletter is over one year old! We sent all subscribers an e-mail asking to confirm (opt-in) or opt-out. (See story on the left). If you did not get the e-mail or did not open it and want to continue to get this Newsletter just click on the confirm link above the banner.
If you get this newsletter via a link on LinkedIn you get it about 2-3 weeks later than our subscribers. Subscribe and get the news on conferences and jobs sooner.
You can help make this newsletter interesting by contributing news about your activities in EVM, your company, product announcements, or your projects. Each month starts with a blank sheet, we don't make this stuff up! Send news to me at evinfo@mgmt-technologies.com
Ray Stratton, PMP,EVP
Editor |
 | EVM Data for Public Consumption
| According to NextGov the IT Investment Oversight Enhancement and Waste Prevention Act (S. 920) would establish a website for tracking the results of IT investments, similar to the IT Dashboard that federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra launched last year. It also would require agency CIOs to submit quarterly reports on IT systems' costs, schedule and performance against planned benchmarks. The bill includes mandated data elements such as "earned value management," but does not require simple language meaningful to a general audience.
So how do you tell the general public about a project's EVM metrics in a way that avoids four letter words like BCWS, ACWP, and BCWP?
Percents!
Planned Percent Complete (100*BCWS/BAC)
Actual Percent Complete (100* BCWP/BAC)
Percent of funds Spent (100*ACWP/BAC)
You don't need to know EVM to understand percents. If the actual percent complete is 30%, but the planned percent complete is 40% and 60% of the funds are spent then your tax dollars are not being used well. So now that EVM data can be shared with the public are they ready for it? The concern was addressed in a 1992 movie.
Col. Jessep: (Jack Nicholson) "You want answers?"
Lt. Kaffee (Tom Cruise): "I want the truth!"
Col. Jessep: (Jack Nicholson) "You can't handle the truth!"
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| EVM Tidbit #14 | Don't Rush to Integrate
ANSI 748 Guideline 2.1(c) says "Provide for the integration of the  planning, scheduling, budgeting, work authorization and cost accumulation processes with each other, and as appropriate, the program work breakdown structure and the program organizational structure."
But integrated does not mean computer to computer communication or sharing of a database. It means all these processes are related and hang on the WBS and/or OBS (structures).
Software is not certified as ANSI 748 compliance, processes are. One can meet the ANSI 748 guidelines with MS Office Products (or equivalent), and MS Project (or equivalent). It's been done. It's all about discipline and process. Still, at some point a large project or large organization will need the efficiency of commercial products. But papers and speakers have said it again and again, EVMS is about process. Don't buy software until you define and know your processes. Where is the schedule information coming from? Where is the financial information coming from? Where and how are you going to get material and subcontractor performance data?
You need to be able to answer these questions before you are ready to evaluate commercial software. Spreadsheets and word processing and scheduling software can help you define your real needs while getting EVM concepts into your culture and processes. These tools also give you the chance to manually find and enter data. Yes, it's laborious, but how else will you really see what you have and how you will get it into your EVMS? Once you automate the data transfer you loose visibility and just have to deal with results.
Even the automated importing of actual costs can create EVM challenges. More on this in a future EVM Newsletter.
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| Dates Set for 2011 Earned Value Experience™ (CAM workshop) and EVPrep™ Exam Prep Workshop Dates | |
Dates and locations have been sent for the first half of 2011 the Earned Value Experinece and EVPrep workshops.
Earned Value Experience (CAM) Workshop
You'll experience creating an earned value management baseline, determining earned value from project status,  calculating earned value management indices, and estimating final cost and completion date. This workshop is perfect for team leads, control account managers, financial and schedule control staff, project and program managers, and chief project officers. Excel EzEVM™Templates may be retained by attendees to implement earned value management in their organization.
EVPrep Exam Prep Workshop
The workshop covers all the topics likely covered in the exam and provides exam-like questions and workshop discussion about each question and the possible answers. This workshop also includes an EVM analysis question to help prepare you for the three page written essay in Part II (was part IV). This is twelve hours of mock EVP exam and discussions of correct and incorrect answers. Do you have an EVP FAQ? Go to AACE's website for the latest information about exam dates. Interested in an on-site workshop? Send an e-mail with your your address and the number of attendees to receive a quote. |
| Upcoming EVM and PM Conferences | |
WHO:IPMA
WHEN: 1-3 November 2010
22nd Annual Integrated Program Management Conference (Registration pen)
WHERE: Washington DC
WHEN:8-10 November 2010
EVA Europe 2010
WHEN:24-25 November 2010
WHERE: Belgium
MORE INFO:
AACE San Francisco Section 2011 Western Winter Workshop
WHEN: 2-6 February 2011
WHERE: Pebble Beach, Monterey CA
NASA PM Challenge
 WHEN: 9-10 February 2011
WHERE: Long Beach CA
EVM World 2011
WHEN: 18-20 May 2011
WHERE: Naples, FL MORE INFO: PMI College of Performance Management
AACE Annual Meeting 2011
WHEN: 19-22 June 2011
WHERE:June 19-22, Disneyland Resort, Anaheim CA
Australasian Integrated Performance Management Symposium
(AIPMS)
WHEN: July 2011
WHERE: Canberra
MORE INFO: later
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EVM Jobs | |
Honeywell, Defense & Space
Puerto Rico has one position available for a Senior Analyst, require more than 10 years EVMS & Project Management experience.
US sites have multiple positions for Senior Analysts and Analysts II.
Contact:
Manager PP&C, Business Operations Honeywell Defense & Space Tel: (787)658-2671 Mobile: (787)415-2427 E-mail: maria.soto2@honeywell.com
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| EVM on fixed price contracts |
If I have a cost reimbursable contract my customer may likely ask for EVM data since their money is at risk. If the contract is fixed price and I'm the contractor I definitely want to use EVM. It's my money and profit at risk. But if my customer asks for EVM on my fixed price contract the cost data is none of their business. I may lose money, or I might make a ton of money. But what the customer is willing to pay should be based upon the utility of my product, not my cost. So what do you do when your FP customer asks for EVM data? One solution is to keep two sets of books, your internal data, and the customer's report. The customer report has no real cost data, just set ACWP=BCWP. That takes care of the Cost Variance. The customer can focus on the Schedule Variance.
But if the customer's real interest in asking for EVM is to get a sense of schedule and if they will get their goods per the plan, maybe traditional EVM schedule data (SV) is not the answer either. Telling them that the PV is $156K and the EV is $145K tells them little more than you are behind schedule. How far behind?
Carol J. Christian-Day, EVP, PSP addressed this in her talk at the 2010 AACE Annual Meeting in June. She reviews five approaches and recommends one as perfect for this scenario. It provides the customer valuable schedule insight without revealing sensitive cost data. Read her paper for all the details.
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Do you have news to share? Send your news item and we'll review it for posting in a future EVM Newsletter. Ray Stratton, PMP, EVP
Management Technologies |
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The EVM Newsletter, EVPrep, The Earned Value Management Maturity Model, EVM3, EzEVM, and The Earned Value Experience are trademarks of Management Technologies. The Earned Value Professional and EVP are trademarks of the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering, International. (AACEŽ) |
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