baseline schedule

Controlling a project is key to the success or failure of the project. Earned Value Management (EVM) is a well-known technique to control the time and cost performance of a project and to predict the final project duration and cost. It is an easy tool to generate early warning signals to timely detect problems or to exploit project opportunities. An overview of the EVM metrics is given in “Earned Value Management: An overview”. In this article, it will be shown that the project baseline schedule plays a crucial role in EVM, and that the planned value curve is a direct translation of this baseline schedule in monetary terms. Project progress, and the measured project performance, is based on the current planned value, actual cost and earned value.