De-mystifying earned value management for ground based astronomy projects, large and small

Timothy Norton; Patricia Brennan; Mark Mueller

doi:10.1117/12.2056543

4 August 2014 De-mystifying earned value management for ground based astronomy projects, large and small

Timothy Norton, Patricia Brennan, Mark Mueller

Proceedings Volume 9150, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy VI; 915009 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056543
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

The scale and complexity of today’s ground based astronomy projects have justifiably required Principal Investigator’s and their project teams to adopt more disciplined management processes and tools in order to achieve timely and accurate quantification of the progress and relative health of their projects. Earned Value Management (EVM) is one such tool. Developed decades ago and used extensively in the defense and construction industries, and now a requirement of NASA projects greater than $20M; EVM has gained a foothold in ground-based astronomy projects. The intent of this paper is to de-mystify EVM by discussing the fundamentals of project management, explaining how EVM fits with existing principles, and describing key concepts every project can use to implement their own EVM system. This paper also discusses pitfalls to avoid during implementation and obstacles to its success. The authors report on their organization’s most recent experience implementing EVM for the GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF) project. G-CLEF is a fiber-fed, optical echelle spectrograph that has been selected as a first light instrument for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), planned for construction at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert region.

Citation Download Citation

Timothy Norton, Patricia Brennan, and Mark Mueller "De-mystifying earned value management for ground based astronomy projects, large and small", Proc. SPIE 9150, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy VI, 915009 (4 August 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056543

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