Project Controls - DEVA (Dynamic EV Analysis) – A new way to get much more out of EVM with less effort

EVM (Earned Value Analysis) is a well-known concept for any Project Controls Manager. The method aggregates progress (planned and actual/forecast) of the project activities (according to the value attributed to each activity (“Cost Loading”) enabling a comparison of the project current progress with the approved baseline schedule.

Unless you have a well thought-out codification system (to “tag” each activity according to a number of criteria, you are stuck with only one of these “S-Curve” diagrams, that is for the overall project. It always looks good in any progress report and provides an overall trend of the project as well as a few interesting KPI’s, but not much more than that.

Figure 1 - Traditional Schedule Variance Analysis Method

?

The need

Some years ago, while working for a Metro Project in the Middle East, the Project Manager frequently asked me to identify the activities contributing to the difference in PV (Planed Value) and EV (Earned Value). I have always loaded my schedules with a significant number of codes (such as project phase, geographical area codes, type of work, system/ subsystem, subcontractor, etc. These codes allowed me to provide the answers the PM has asked, but it took some time.

I became interested in being able to explore the Schedule Variance in an efficient and useful manner, and this led to the development of a method that I call DEVA (Dynamic EV Analysis). This article describes this DEVA method of analyzing the Schedule Variance.

?

The need for a comprehensive codification system

To be able to perform the “drill-down” technique used in the DEVA method, it is absolutely essential to adopt and implement a comprehensive codification system. This is an example of the types of codes which a Project Planner may adopt (this is totally independent of the WBS hierarchy used to organize and view the Project Schedule):

Project Phase: (1.Award&Mobilization, 2.Design, 3.Procurement, 4.Manufacture (equipment bought that need to be manufacture by suppliers), 5.Civil Works (broken down further), 6.MEP (for buildings), 7. Systems / Subsystems (mostly for industrial projects), 8 (Test and Commissioning (can be broken down into FAT, Simple Test, Integrated Test, Dynamic Tests, System Test, etc)

?

The drill-down process

The strategy for the drill-down process, defines the sequence in which the user will be able to drill-down, such as in the following example:

·????????Level 1: Project Phase (Engineering, manufacturing, construction, equip. inst., T&C, etc);

·????????Level 2: Geographic Code (building, zone, etc.);

·????????Level 3: Type of Work (excavation, concrete structures, MEP, etc.);

·????????Level 3: Subcontractor;

·????????Final 4(final): Activity ID from the schedule;

Note that the last step will lead you to the actual activity in the schedule.

At each level of the drill down process, the user sees the value that is contributed to the Schedule Variance, from the part of the project being analysed.

Figure 2 - Drill-Down process

?

The Result – Interactive DEVA Dashboard

In our case, we develop the front-office in PowerBI, enabling the development of customized highly interactive dashboards. But this can even be done in Excel or other platforms.

Figure 3 -Example of DEVA Dashboard

?link to a presentation of our PP&C Services:

Final Note: A decent number crunching capability in your team is needed, to implement such a model, especially if it is going to be updated automatically from the scheduling SW database.

#PROJECTCONTROLS #EVM #EWENPLANNINGSERVICES #EWENENERGY #EVM #PROJECTCONTROLS #DEVA #DYNAMIC_EV_ANALYSIS