We can help! Our team of SME’s have over 50+ years of experience with establishing baselines, cost and scheduling that adheres to DCMA/DCAA/GAO standards and industry best practices. For scheduling, we have experience in Microsoft Project Server, Primavera P6, Microsoft Project standard and have experience in Acumen Fuse/Steelray and other schedule diagnostic tools to make sure you have a compliant schedule. On the cost side of Earned Value, we have consultants with robust experience in Deltek Cobra, Deltek Winsight, MPM and other industry tools. Our team has been through 30+ Integrated Baseline Reviews (IBR) if you need support or training to prepare for such an upcoming event. We also have experience with Agile, System Engineering and some basic cost estimating. We also pride ourselves in EVM & IBR training if you are looking for someone to come in and help out your organization or just give top-level exposure. We can tailor the training for you! We are also PMP certified. Contact us today for a free estimate!

If we cannot help or are busy with a current assignment, we will get you in touch with someone who can! Drop us an email today @ EVMConsulting.com@gmail.com with your organizational needs. Our staff of experts have extensive experience in the following:

-EVM (Earned Value Management) reports (COBRA, MS Project, wInsight, MPM, etc.)

-IMS (Integrated Master Schedules) in MS Project and other software

-Analysis of your current EVMS system to get you on the road towards a VR (Validation Review)

-PMR Reporting to include Cost (to include EVM) & Schedule (14-point and DCMA/GAO standards) metrics and insights.

-EVM training for staff, management, analysts or CAM’s (Control/Cost Account Managers)

-IBR (Integrated Baseline Review) training

-IBR preparation

-Risk Mitigation

-FITARA preparation & enforcement

-proposal support (include schedules for proposal efforts)

I opened up my email today and look what I found! Gary and Humphrey’s & Associates is terrific and glad they put their hat in the ring. Perhaps this will give AACE a run for their money with their EVP certification.

Here are the details and website link:

https://www.humphreys-assoc.com/evms/evms_workshops.php

The requirements for the Practitioner Certification are as follows:

Earned Value Practitioner (42 PDU’s, 4.2 CEU’s)

• Completion of H&A 3-day Earned Value workshop (within last 5 years)
• Completion of 3-day Project Scheduling workshop (within last 5 years)
• At least 3 years in related field
• Exam

Once you have earned the Humphreys & Associates Practitioner Certification, attend the Advanced EVMS workshop to earn the Humphreys & Associates Advanced Earned Value Professional Certification.

Advanced Earned Value Professional (additional 21 PDU’s, 2.1 CEU’s)

• Successful achievement of Earned Value Practitioner level
• Completion of Advanced Earned Value Management workshop
• At least 10 years work experience in related field
• Exam

It has been a long while since my past entry, so Happy 2013 everyone. I hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday. I also hope we see a resolution to the sequester here soon. Some teamwork and moderation is long overdue in Washington DC. Compromise is not a bad thing in my eyes. We all probably know compromise quite well in our line of work, so perhaps Congress needs some EVM! Our projected IEACs are definitely pretty scary!

Recently I was asked to right a paper on EVM and Agile. I found that entertaining because I had very little exposure to Agile, but welcomed the challenge. There are varying viewpoints out there if EVM can coexisit in an Agile environment. I would love to hear your thoughts. At first glance, the funding structure of an Agile project/program is quite challenging. I believe this limits many people out of the gate. However, if you are already in a daily standup covering your progress the day before and what is being done today, what better time and place to do EVM?

Let’s hear from you. What are your thoughts, experiences and observations?

In a previous post, I talked about EVM requirements on a FFP contract. Today I would like to talk about non-EVM requirements on FFP contracts. Recently, I reached out to some industry experts for advice on precisely this question and I would love to hear your feedback as well.

There was a scenario where the DIDs were being written for a large-scale FFP contract. The contract would potentially be paid using 5 key milestone events (TBD).

Initially, the requirement would have no cost, burn rate charts or even a CFSR mandated as monthly CDRLs. Since it is a FFP contract most likely these reports would need to be in hours, but it would give you another mechanism for mitigating potential risks.

Additionally, the requirement mandated an IMS but not a resource loaded-IMS nor IMS narrative or IMP.

So I reached out to Gary Humphrey’s of Humphrey’s & Associates, Mark Infanti of SM&A and an industry veteran I have known for years to get their feedback. I thank them all very much for their time and advice.

The verdict?

All answers were very similar and shockingly they were surprised with the lack of a resource-loaded IMS requirement. They would definitely require an IMS Narrative and IMP as well. The CFSR was recommended based on contractual language (is the contractor liable for any overrun or termination cost or any additional costs?) and burn rate charts were suggested as a useful tool.

The importance of a solid risk plan and conducting either an IBR or BER (Baseline Executability Review) were also emphasized.

My general question is this: why on a FFP contract, absent of cost or EVM reporting, would you require an IMS that isn’t resource loaded? No other tool exists to give you better visibility into risks on the program.

Just because you may not be paying for schedule delays, doesn’t mean there won’t be any.

Attention Program Managers: Do yourself a big favor and invest the extra money in good Program Control CDRLs for proper risk mitigation and hire the right professionals to analyze this data. Spend extra time making sure you have the right requirements are in the DID before the RFP is released. You will save yourself big headaches later on, I promise you.

Let me ask you out there-what CDRLs would you require on a FFP contract? What Lessons Learned have you witnessed?

Happy Holidays Everyone:)

I attended quite an interesting conference call yesterday. I will leave names and organizations nameless of course.

An organizational head was brought in to speak of his experience of leading and implementing EVM in his organization. He was seen as a leader of EVM implementation in the industry and knew how to get things done.

One of his first steps was to mandate EVM for all programs above a threshold (lower than the most common $20M number). He said he mandated this on all existing contracts. A question immediately popped in my head and before I could ask it, it was asked by one of the members physically present at the meeting. “How can you require EVM reporting if it wasn’t listed in the DID?” His answer: “I told them they had no choice. I see it as part of good Program Management.”

Well, I don’t disagree with him that it is definitely part of good program management; I do disagree that you cannot just require it after the fact without getting all kinds of extra charges (allowable) or a contractual nightmare between organizations. EVM must be included in the DID (Data Item Description) and planned accordingly. If an organization or company does not know he will be doing EVM on a contract and then is mandated to do so, it is going to severely impact the value of the outputs (and probably structure & visibility into the data).

I think this industry veteran has a wealth of experience and his heart in the right place but organizations must be careful with such mandates. This can be a dangerous concept to be passing along to other organizations.

4 Main Points on Earned Value Requirements:

1. Good EV is worth the money

2. Good EV cannot be implemented after the fact without impacting the quality of the data (accounting structure, program structure, staffing issues, etc.)

3. The extra cost of EV must be made aware to all parties.

4. Contractors-don’t cut your EV budgets during the bidding process. Government folks: challenge the contractors EV staffing plan.  Ask if it is adequate enough to handle the reporting requirements listed in the DID and get experienced Earned Value folks to look at it.

I cannot make this point enough. The number one reason problems arise with the EV reporting is because there isn’t the right people running the show. To get good EV, you need experienced people and a certain minimum level of staffing support. What do contractors do? They want to land the contract and Planning & Control departments (which are usually low on the political totem poll) get cut. What do government folks do? They accept as cost savings. Challenge the estimate! If it is a cost plus contract, you will probably pay for it later one way or the other.

I have seen a lot of people ask this question recently. Program is ending and I have MR left, so now what?

Well it all depends.

EV is increasingly being used on FFP type contracts (with good reason in my opinion-probably not a popular opinion). If you have unused MR on a FFP type contract, then presto!, you have extra profit. Cool trick huh? Might be a good surprise for your bosses and your bonus at year end. Realistically though, corporate forecast account for these type of things normally with risk weighted forecasts, so a big surprise is probably not in your cards, but who knows!

Can I apply my MR to my VAC?

Now, what about on a cost-reimbursable contract? Well, it is a cost contract. Costs are billed as they are incurred. MR is a temporary holding account for risk that hopefully matches a documented risk profile. If these unanticipated risks did not occur, then they were never billed, so it isn’t really there. Make sense? You wouldn’t bill for MR, so in that way I guess it is sort of “covering” your VAC in abstract terms.

I sure wish I had some MR set aside in my home:) I bet I am not the only one that wishes that either!

Happy Friday everyone.

Happy 2011 Everyone!

I have been hearing a lot recently about EVM requirements on FFP contracts. I wanted to hear about your experiences out there on the ground.

My initial thoughts are why not just make it a cost-type contract if you want EVMS, but let’s take a closer look. By doing a FFP contract most of the risk is shifted to the contractor from the prime, so requiring EVMS may be overkill. You could still do a FFP contract and require a non-integrated schedule and have closely watched cost reports with estimates to complete. Additionally, technically performance could be updated on a quarterly, monthly or even weekly review/conference call (PMR’s).

So, I think they are ways of getting the information without the requirement. However, the customer is always right and recently we have seen a big government shift in requiring EVM on all contracts to make sure government money is being well spent.  It is hard to argue with that with so much waste out there.

My advice: Make sure there are adequate resources for the EVMS requirement. Often, this is the first area cut in negotiations and usually the first to cause problems. It always puzzles me how little respect is given to the Planning & Control department of any corporation. If you are the prime, make sure they are adequately staffed for the requirement. Just because it is cheaper, doesn’t make it better. Program Managers: make sure you have experienced people who know what they are doing and make sure you have enough of them. If not, you could be in for a world of pain later.

Conclusion: At first, EVM on FFP contracts seems counter productive, but I think we are beginning to see a shift within the government to require EVM on many different types of contracts. Government organizations just want to be sure their money is being well spent and within the contractual parameters. That cannot be all bad.

It looks like many sites are now charging for a copy of the 32 criteria set fourth by NDIA (National Defense Industrial Association). Here is a June 2009 version (Thank you Glen) of the NDIA ANSI/EIA-748A intent guide for reference. I hope this is helpful.

http://www.ndia.org/Divisions/Divisions/Procurement/Documents/PMSCommittee/CommitteeDocuments/ComplementsANSI/NDIA_PMSC_Intent_Guide_June_2009_Final.pdf

I just wanted to share a great course that was developed by our friends at Humphrey’s & Associates for the DAU. It is a fundamental course, but a great overview and starting point. I would highly recommend it.

I have done so many trainings and there are so many things you can tailor based on the industry, company and program need but this is an excellent resource to offer others within your organization without going out and paying for a course or a consultant. I mean, we all have budgetary restraints in the current work environment so why not take advantage of what is out there?

https://learn.dau.mil/html/scorm12/course/course_index.jsp?course_id=9&scorm_version=3&roster_id=-236.95926674266278&version=5&course_prefix=BCF&course_number=102&course_suffix=&mode=browse&course_name=Fundamentals%20of%20Earned%20Value%20Management&mode_id=10&section_id=

Check it out and let me know what you think!