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Guest post by Travis Anderson

Hello all,

Many of us have experienced frustrations with obtaining useful program performance data. It is not always an easy process of maturing project management and earned value management best practices on our commercial/government contracts. Some days we feel like just giving up, especially during the variance analysis time of the month. Yet we know besides the fact there is a contractual requirement that deep down there is a real need for staying the course.

Useful performance data is dependent on so many different aspects of our programs that need to work in harmony such as systems/software engineering, project management, earned value management best practices. Not to mention other standard business contexts such as budget, organizational culture, individual participation, maturity of core competencies, and customer perception.

To prompt some discussion, I have attached below a one hour video link for you to view. The Performance Based Earned Value video is presented by Paul Solomon, PMP during a DoD Data Analysis Center for Software forum in August 2008. He discusses some common performance related deficiencies and uses the concepts of PBEV to improve the usefulness of performance data by introducing a quality aspect. Topics related to CMMI, Agile, and Acquisitions are also discussed.