Applying EVM in a Software Company: Benefits and Difficulties

Earned Value Management (EVM) is a broadly used performance management and feedback tool for project management. EVM enables depicting the progress in terms of scope cost and schedule. In simplest form, Earned Value concept shows what we have in a project at a specific time against what we spent. Based on the trends, it provides the prospective progress of the project and enables forecasting actual cost at completion in addition to possible completion date. In spite of its widespread use in project management, software projects do not utilize it as much as the other industries. The main objective of this study is to identify the benefits of EVM for software projects as well as the difficulties of its application. Two exploratory case studies have been performed on two industrial software projects. In the light of the application results, the benefits and challenges of EVM implementation for software projects are discussed.