Every program can tell you how much time has passed. The harder question is the one that matters. How much of the scope has been delivered in that time? Scope management and earned value answer it together. Scope management defines what “done” means. Earned value measures how much of it you have. For an Employer working under a fixed contract price, the schedule is where the exposure sits, and the schedule performance index is the number that shows it early. This issue looks at how to build that measure from data your program already collects, and what you have to put in the contract to be able to demand it.
Earned value has a reputation for being heavy. It does not have to be. The PPMM approach keeps it to two numbers a program can produce from its existing schedule and progress data: what the work delivered is worth, and what it was planned to be worth by now. The ratio between them is the schedule performance index, and for an Employer that single number carries most of the early warning value. The contract price is fixed. Time is what you stand to lose.
Producing it needs no new reporting formats and no parallel data collection. Monthly progress quantities, priced against the Bill of Quantities and mapped to the approved schedule, are enough to establish a scope baseline and measure delivered work against it.
The value comes from deciding, in advance, what each result means and who acts on it. Thresholds convert a measurement into a management routine. An index drifting outside the agreed band is not a red square on a slide. It is a standing item at the next management meeting, with a named owner and a recovery plan. The table below shows the shape those bands can take.
| Indicator | Band | What it triggers |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule Performance Index Work delivered vs. work planned |
0.95 and above | Routine monthly reporting. No action required. |
| 0.90 to 0.95 | Engineer explains the variance and the recovery approach at the monthly progress meeting. | |
| Below 0.90 | Written recovery plan with named owner and dates. Standing item until the index recovers. | |
| Scope change Approved variations vs. contract price |
Above 5 percent cumulative | Scope baseline re-issued so performance is measured against what is actually being built. |
None of this works if you ask for it after award. Earned value depends on the contractor delivering a resource-loaded schedule, a work breakdown that ties to the Bill of Quantities, and monthly progress data in a usable form. A contractor is obliged to provide what the contract requires and nothing more. If the requirement is not written into the technical specifications, requesting it later is a variation, and you will pay for it or go without.
Write it in at the tender stage: the reporting frequency, the format, the breakdown structure, the software if you require one, and the consequence for not providing it. This is a specification requirement rather than a Conditions of Contract amendment, so it sits comfortably alongside standard FIDIC terms.
The same logic applies to consultant contracts, where it is used far less often than it should be. Design, supervision, and technical assistance contracts have deliverables, a schedule, and a price. That is everything earned value needs. Assigning a planned value to each deliverable and measuring what has actually been accepted gives you a far better picture than an invoice against level of effort, which tells you how many hours were spent and nothing about what was produced. Put the same reporting requirement in the terms of reference.
Good project management is mostly invisible. The variation that was avoided, the claim that never became a dispute, the schedule that held because someone kept the baseline honest. None of it shows up as an achievement, because the achievement is that nothing went wrong.
In September, IPM is launching a recognition program to make that work visible. It works at two levels: recognition for programs adopting the PPMM in practice, at tiers reflecting how far that adoption has gone, and recognition for individual staff whose performance sets the standard others follow.
It is also built to be used locally. MCAs do not need to wait for IPM to recognize their people. We will share how the tiers work, what qualifies, and how your program can run its own recognition of best practices and exceptional performance on your own schedule. Details follow this month.
The PPMM covers scope management, earned value, and eight other project management areas designed for MCC programs, including the contract language that makes them work. Download it and see what your team could be doing differently — or reach out to IPM to talk through how to apply it to your program.
tkachm@mcc.gov