Earned Value Management is a project methodology that has powerful features, still, it is underutilized in practice. This paper presents a systematic literature review examining the extensions made by researchers to the Earned Value methodology and further compares this to the project environments where the extensions have been utilized in. The classification system used in this paper is based on the Project Process and the Project Knowledge Areas and enables in-depth examination of the different extensions. The contribution of this paper is mainly based on the collection of all peer-reviewed articles presenting extensions to Earned Value Management, as well as incorporating the Earned Value methodology into larger frameworks. It also reveals that the Earned Value methodology has been extended to include nine of the ten Projects Knowledge Areas, and three out of the five Project Processes, this means that Earned Value Management has the capability to include comprehensive features.

Las empresas pequeñas y medianas de construcción en la actualidad enfrentan un mercado de mucha competencia interna y externa, además de ello no cuentan con una metodología de control de sus costos por falta de conocimiento o interés. Por tanto, la introducción de metodologías y técnicas para gestionar sus proyectos es muy significativa, lo que mejorará su competitividad y rentabilidad, y así mantenerse en la industria de la construcción. Para el control de costos, tenemos a la técnica del Valor ganado EV, que representa una buena práctica de la gestión de proyectos, por lo que la Guía del PMBOK® 6ta Edición, lo establece como una herramienta de gestión, a usar para controlar y monitorear un proyecto. Con este fin en el presente trabajo se centró en el desarrollo de una metodología de aplicación de la técnica del valor ganado, en un proyecto de Saneamiento, aplicándose los procesos de planificación, ejecución y monitoreo y control del Valor Ganado, tomando en cuenta que la integración del alcance, tiempo y costo de un proyecto viene a ser la parte más importante al momento de planificar los trabajos, lo que nos resulta una línea base de medición de desempeño del proyecto (PMB) debidamente determinada para controlar y gestionar el desempeño del proyecto. De la aplicación de la metodología de la técnica del valor ganado EV, se resume que se puede obtener los datos necesarios para poder corregir o mejorar el desempeño de un proyecto. A pesar de que el indicador SPI, tiene una desventaja de control en la fase final del proyecto, y para superar ello, se complementará con la técnica del cronograma ganado. Con los resultados concluimos que adoptar los procedimientos plasmados no requiere de grandes modificaciones a las estructuras y políticas de organización que existe en una empresa. / Nowadays smalls and mediums enterprise (SME) of construction have a highly global competitive. In addition, they do not have methodologies of budget control, for lack knowledge or interest. So, introduction of methodologies and techniques for management your projects are much significate, getting better competitive and profit-earning capacity, and stay in the construction industry. For the costs control, we have technique of Earned Value (EV), represents a practice good in the project’s management, so that a Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® guide) 6ta Edition, define as tool management to monitoring and controlled a project. The objective the present work is development an application methodology of earned value for a project construction water drinking and sewerage service. Where the application of process planning, executing, monitoring and controlling of earned value, emphasizing with much important, the integration of scope, schedule and cost of project, establishing as result the performance measurement baseline (PMB) approved to manage and control project performance. The methodology application of Earned Value EV technique, in summary that can getting data necessary to improve or correct the performance in a project. Even though that the indicator SPI, have a disadvantage, this has disadvantages in the phases project end, and to overcome it, complement with earned schedule technique. With the results, conclude the procedures adopt not need big changes in the politics and structures organization of enterprise. / Trabajo de investigación

The work deals with the choice and implementation of an open source tool for managing a project portfolio management in the organization of o.s. Prostor. The first part of the work aims at theory description including examination of trends in project management tools and open source software. Project management and project portfolio management is increasingly important and increasingly used by companies and organizations in recent years. According to a new study made by Gartner, the use of open source software continues to grow and becomes competitive differently. The main aim of the work was to successfully implement one selected open source tool to the organization that I have found at an early stage. After finding the suitable company, I started to do the main part of my work i.e. the implementation of a selected open source tool for managing projects and its portfolio in this company. This phase started from the choice of the most suitable instrument, by means of analysis of the selected organization, o.s. Prostor, to the final design and implementation itself. I made analysis of the organization and on its basis I chose suitable criteria and their weights for the later selection of a suitable tool. I performed the choice based on multi-criteria analysis in order to maximum objectively select a suitable open source tool for implementation. None of the existing instruments fully met the requirements of the organization o.s. Prostor. Therefore, I assessed finally selected web2project tool in detail and made a proposal for additional programming of missing functionality. After completion of the missing functionality additional programming, I made a proposal of a web2project tool implementation procedure. I suggested four stages of the implementation procedure, which consists of the preparation for the installation environment, the way how to install the tool on the server, planning necessary capacity, and finally training including creation of a demonstration project. Finally, based on this proposal, I installed the tool web2project on the server and run testing and validation of the tool. When performing this work, I gained a lot of valuable experience in all relevant phases of the project cycle management from management to the implementation itself. The organization intends to fully operate the tool early next year, 2012, when they can begin to enter new projects.

La presente investigación de carácter cuantitativo tiene el propósito de demostrar que el uso de la Metodología de Valor Ganado (Earned Value Management - EVM) para controlar los costos en una obra influye en la optimización de la rentabilidad de un proyecto inmobiliario; en este caso en la ejecución de la especialidad de estructuras de la obra: Proyecto Multifamiliar Los Fresnos. Para ello, se determinó el desempeño de la obra mediante los índices propuestos por el EVM, para conocer el estado del proyecto; se calculó el rendimiento y las variaciones de costo y tiempo de la ejecución de obra para estimar el rendimiento al cierre de la obra; y por último, se tomó acciones en obra para optimizar la gestión de costos. La investigación se aborda de acuerdo al tipo de estudio correlacional - transversal, ya que se midió el desempeño de costo y tiempo de la ejecución de la obra usando los índices de Rendimiento y Variación que ofrece la teoría del EVM tabulados en formatos de tablas y gráficos (validado por las ecuaciones propuestas en la Guía del PMBOK ® 5ta versión del PMI®) determinando el estado económico, la fidelidad del cronograma en el que se encontraba la obra para determinados periodos y la proyección de cómo terminaría la ejecución de la especialidad de estructuras, luego se tomaron acciones en función de los resultados obtenidos. Los resultados finales para el último periodo de aplicación del EVM en la especialidad de estructuras fue de un ahorro de hasta S/. 60 mil nuevos soles con un ligero retraso del 3% con respecto al cronograma planificado. Concluyéndose que la aplicación de la Metodología del Valor Ganado resultó efectiva para controlar las desviaciones que presentó la obra Los Fresnos, medir el progreso de la obra y actuar de forma correctiva en esta investigación. This quantitative research aims to demonstrate that the use of the Earned Value Management (EVM) to control costs in a job influences the optimization of the performance of a real estate project; in this case the execution of the specialty structures of the job: Multifamily Project Los Fresnos. To do this, the performance of the job was determined by the rates proposed by the EVM, to find out the status of the project; calculations were taken of the performance and changes in cost and time of the execution of work to estimate the performance at the end of the job; and finally, action was taken on the job to optimize cost management. The research is discussed according to the type of correlational study - transversely, as the performance of cost and time of execution of the job was measured using indexes of performance and variation offered by the theory of EVM tabulated formats charts and graphs (validated by the equations proposed in the PMBOK ® Guide 5th Version PMI®) determining the economic status, the fidelity of schedule in which the work was at for certain periods and projecting how to end the execution of the specialty structures, then actions were taken depending on the results obtained. The final results for the latest period of EVM implementation specializing in structures were savings of up 60,000 nuevos soles with a slight delay of 3% compared to the planned schedule. Concluding that the application of Earned Value Management was effective in controlling the deviations that the Los Fresnos job presented, measuring the progress of the job, and acting in the correct manner for this investigation.

Abstract Software and ICT companies fail due less to technological factors than socioorganizational factors, among which the most common is unrealistic goals and objectives. The socioorganizational factors are present in companies and organizations of all sizes. Organizations need to know whether their goals and strategies are working and whether the strategies are effectively providing a reasonable return on investment for the effort that is being applied, i.e. to understand how valuable they are for the organization. In addition, organizations need to recognize what the risks are in achieving those goals and evaluate their probability. And, when goals are set properly then they have directive and energizing functions, they tend to utilize available resources better and serve as activators of cognitive processes and knowledge sharing cycles. In this dissertation the GQM+Strategies approach was used. The approach was designed to help organizations to align goal-driven measurement schemes, i.e. GQM, with organizational goal hierarchy. The extensions developed in this dissertation (i.e., the solution proposed here) evolve the GQM+Strategies approach by providing an organization with capabilities to: (1) apply the work of value-based software engineering to directly address the return on investment (ROI) of their goals and strategies via evaluation of the costs and benefits of the goals and strategies chosen, (2) calculate a set of earned value metrics that allows organizations to effectively monitor the implementation of the organizational goals and strategies, (3) identify the risks associated with not achieving various sub-goals in a grid by analyzing goal risk exposures and acceptable risk levels, and (4) assess the threats of risky goals on other goals in the grid via evaluation of goal dependencies using the formal goal-strategies-goals models. The GQM+Strategies approach was piloted in four different organizations involving more than 60 participants. The feedback from the participants was used to identify the research questions posed in this dissertation. The research approach (solution development process) adopted the design science framework and utilized analytical and empirical paradigms in different phases of the solution development. The analytical paradigms were used for solution development and evaluation, while empirical paradigms where used for evaluating certain aspects of the solution. / Tiivistelmä Ohjelmisto- ja tietotekniikkayritysten epäonnistumiset johtuvat useimmin sosio-organisationaalisista tekijöistä kuin teknologisista tekijöistä. Näistä sosio-organisationaalisista tekijöistä yleisin on epärealististen tavoitteiden asettaminen. Sosio-organisatoriset tekijät ovat läsnä kaiken kokoisissa yrityksissä ja organisaatioissa. Organisaatioiden tulee tietää ovatko heidän tavoitteensa ja strategiansa toimivia ja tarjoavatko heidän strategiansa kohtuullisen tuoton suhteessa käytettyihin investointeihin. Toisin sanoen, organisaatioiden tulee ymmärtää kuinka arvokkaita heidän strategiansa ovat. Tämän lisäksi organisaatioiden täytyy kyetä tunnistamaan riskit asetettujen tavoitteiden saavuttamisessa sekä arvioimaan näiden riskien todennäköisyys. Kun tavoitteet on asetettu asianmukaisesti niillä on ohjaava ja energisoiva vaikutus. Ne sekä ohjaavat hyödyntämään tehokkaammin käytettävissä olevia rerursseja että toimivat kognitiivisten prosessien ja tiedonjakosyklien aktivaattoreina. Tässä väitöskirjassa käytettiin GQM+Strategies lähestymistapaa. Tämä lähestymistapa on suunniteltu auttamaan organisaatiota linjaamaan tavoitelähtöisiä mittausmenetelmiä, kuten GQM, organisaation tavoitehierarkian suhteen. Tässä väitöskirjassa esitetty laajennus kehittää GQM+Strategies lähestymistapaa tarjoamalla organisaatioille kyvykkyyksiä: (1) soveltaa arvoperustaisen ohjelmistotuotannon menetelmiä tavoitteiden ja strategioiden investoinnin tuottojen tarkasteluihin arvioimalla valittujen tavoitteiden ja strategioiden kustannuksia ja hyötyjä, (2) laskea joukko saavutetun arvon mittareita jotka mahdollistavat organisaatioille toteutettujen organisationaalisten tavoitteiden ja strategioiden tehokkaan seurannan, (3) identifioida riskejä jotka liittyvät eri alitavoitteiden saavuttamattomuuteen analysoimalla tavoiteriskeihin altistumista ja hyväksyttäviä riskitasoja ja (4) arvioida riskejä sisältävien tavoitteiden uhkia suhteessa muihin tavoitteisiin arvioimalla tavoitteiden riippuvuuksia käyttäen formaaleja tavoite-strategiat-tavoite -malleja. GQM+Strategies lähestymistapaa pilotoitiin neljässä organisaatiossa yhteensä yli 60 osallistujan kanssa. Tutkimuksen osallistujilta saatua palautetta käytettiin väitöskirjan tutkimuskysymysten identifiointiin. Tutkimuksen lähestymistavassa (ratkaisun kehittämisprosessi) sovellettiin design science -kehikkoa ja ratkaisun kehittämisen eri vaiheissa hyödynnettiin analyyttisiä ja empiirisiä paradigmoja. Analyyttisiä paradigmoja käytettiin ratkaisun kehittämisessä ja arvioinnissa ja empiirisiä paradigmoja ratkaisujen määrättyjen aspektien arvioinnissa.

This study originally emanated from the debate on value creation through projects, which has become more prevalent in project management literature in recent times. Earned value analysis, which is widely used to measure and report the performance of project value, does not include the occurrence of value leaks in its calculations and reporting. Although there is a scarcity of literature on the issue of value leaks during project deployment, it is considered to be a big issue which can make or break a project’s value success. This lack of research is more pronounced in network expansion projects in the Ghanaian telecommunication industry, however, considering the level of investment by these network operators, and their contribution to economic growth, the occurrence of value leaks can be suspected. Therefore, the overall aim of the study was to develop a diagnostic model that aids in the easy identification of value leaks, so that they can be controlled, and remedied to minimise the forgone unrealised project value. In view of this, the study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed research design. The qualitative phase employed a multiple-case study approach to explore the concept of value leaks and the extent to which it becomes problematic in delivering overall project value. The quantitative phase, through a survey study, adopted factor analysis to test and validate the findings from the case study, and analyses were also performed to test the conceptual model fit to the retained dataset. The findings culminated in the development of the “Value Leaks-Flashlight”, with an add-on called the “Tolerable Nut” to theorise the concept of value leaks. This practical establishment of the value leak concept cemented the development of the value leaks diagnostic model through the application of the “CIIR” acronym, which fulfils the overall aim of the study. The study contributes to the contemporary literature in the field of project management, as the concept of project value leaks is still gaining prominence, and only a few empirical studies have thus far been conducted. The concept of value leaks enlightens the perspective of project management practitioners in their quest to achieve value through projects. / Business Management / D. Phil. (Management Studies)

Project control is essential to ensure that the investment on a project is providing the intended benefits and is valuable to the customers. Previous methods offer project performance monitoring and forecasting tools, but they lack accuracy and the associated techniques omit the project financial risk (any unplanned event that has an impact on schedule and budget); the main factor of project failure. Poor project execution, and particularly failure to control and accurately forecast the project performance, may lead to increased costs, upset customers and eventually loss of market share. These gaps have been filled in this study by the development of novel models that use statistical analysis of the previous project performance, including risk evaluation techniques. The proposed models succeeded in providing remarkably improved forecasts in three project dimensions: duration, cost and resources. The robustness of the models has been verified by testing them on real projects. The results show superiority in terms of accuracy and easy application compared to any existing method, proving that the risk inclusion provides improvement compared to previous studies. The most important features of the models are: risk-based adjustment of the forecasted values, periodic and completion forecasts, statistical processing and holistic approach. The greatest advancements have been made in the cost forecast, for which the risk adjustment inclusion is examined for the first time. The resources (man-hours) forecast is another pioneer element of the proposed models. All the above provide a complete image of the project status and paint the picture of future performance. The models results are fed in a Decision Support System, which highlights the overperforming and underperforming areas of the project. This confirms the proposition that the model results can be used to initiate restorative action. The contribution of this study to the project management field is easy-to-use and accurate models, which include the financial risk and facilitate the project manager’s decisions and actions. Anticipation of the project performance, by considering the risk, can result to significant time and cost savings, crucial for project success.