AS 4817—2006

AS 4817—2006

Australian Standard™

Project performance measurement

using Earned Value
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 This Australian Standard was prepared by Committee OB-014, Earned Value
Management. It was approved on behalf of the Council of Standards Australia on
23 November 2005.
This Standard was published on 6 January 2006.

The following are represented on Committee OB-014:

Australian Cost Engineering Society

Australian Health Industry Inc
Australian Institute of Project Management
Australian Performance Management Association
Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors
Department of Defence (Australia)
Project Management Institute

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This Standard was issued in draft form for comment as DR 04562.

 AS 4817—2006

Australian Standard™

Project performance measurement

using Earned Value

Originated as AS 4817—2003.
Second edition 2006.
This is a free 7 page sample. Access the full version online.

COPYRIGHT
© Standards Australia
All rights are reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without the written
permission of the publisher.
Published by Standards Australia, GPO Box 476, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia
ISBN 0 7337 7079 7
 AS 4817—2006 ii

Preface
This Standard was prepared by the Standards Australia Committee
OB-014, Earned Value Performance Measurement (EVPM) to
supersede AS 4817—2003.
The objectives of this Standard are:
• To define the essential elements of the EVPM method.
• To be used as a measurement tool to determine whether the
EVPM method has been implemented.
• To provide a basis for EVPM implementation for all industries and
sizes of Projects.
• To clearly communicate the benefits of the EVPM method.
• To be fundamentally compatible with any existing Australian or
International Standards.
• To be relevant to Project Managers (PMs) and executive
management in organizations that manage by Projects.
The terminology used in this Standard has been chosen to be
acceptable across a wide range of disciplines. Terms used in the
Standard that are in common use have been adopted from the
PMBOK Guide 2000 Edition v1.2, ANSI/PMI 99-001-2000 (PMBOK).
If the PMBOK did not provide an adequate definition of a term then
the definition from ANSI/EIA-748-A-1998, Earned Value Management
Systems was used. In some cases slight alterations have been made
to the definitions to better reflect the Australian context. If neither the
PMBOK nor ANSI/EIA-748 provided a satisfactory definition for a
given term then the Committee created an applicable definition.
If terms have a common-use abbreviation then this abbreviation has
been used, subsequent to its first use, throughout the remainder of
the Standard.
The terms ‘normative’ and ‘informative’ have been used to distinguish
between prescriptive and non-prescriptive parts in the Standard
respectively. The ‘normative’ parts are the sub-sections in Section 3
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titled ‘Requirements’ and Section 1.3 titled ‘Definitions’ where terms

used in those requirements are defined. Parts of the Standard that
are ‘informative’ include those marked ‘informative’ and titled
‘Guidance’. Where a term from the ‘Definitions’ section is used in an
‘informative’ part of the Standard it is not intended that the term
impart ‘normativity’ to that part.
Terms that are defined in Section 1.3 are set in SMALL CAPITALS
throughout this Standard.

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 iii AS 4817—2006

Contents

Page

Foreword ........................................................................................ v

1 Introduction
1.1 Scope ............................................................................1
1.2 Application .....................................................................1
1.3 Definitions (Normative) ..................................................1
1.4 What is earned value? ...................................................5
1.5 Benefits of earned value performance measurement ....8

2 Earned value performance measurement

2.1 Basic actions .................................................................9
2.2 Basic concepts ..............................................................9
2.3 What about a more complex project? ..........................12

3 The earned value performance measurement process

3.1 STEP 1: Decompose the project scope .......................18
3.2 STEP 2: Assign responsibility ......................................18
3.3 STEP 3: Schedule the work.........................................19
3.4 STEP 4: Develop time-phased budget.........................20
3.5 STEP 5: Assign objective measures of performance ...21
3.6 STEP 6: Set the performance measurement baseline .22
3.7 STEP 7: Authorize and perform the work.....................23
3.8 STEP 8: Accumulate and report performance data......24
3.9 STEP 9: Analyse project performance data .................25
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3.10 STEP 10: Take management action ............................26

3.11 STEP 11: Maintain the baseline...................................26

APPENDICES
A Acroynms ....................................................................28
B Measuring and analysing performance ........................29
C Common charts and their interpretation.......................35
 AS 4817—2006 iv

Foreword
Earned Value Performance Measurement (EVPM) is a method for
measuring and reporting project performance, and forecasting future
performance based on past performance. The EVPM method
measures performance of the time and cost aspects of a project and
enables effective project management. The EVPM method provides:
• means for measuring project performance and status;
• means for measuring progress against a BASELINE (plan);
• forecasts of future performance based on past performance; and
• metrics for comparison of project performance across an
organization and between organizations.
EVPM assists managers to:
• report cost and schedule performance using standardised
techniques;
• analyse variances between the plan and actual progress;
• control changes to the BASELINE; and
• forecast completion costs and finish dates.
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 1 AS 4817—2006

1 Introduction
1.1 Scope
This Standard establishes requirements and gives guidance for the
measurement and reporting of cost and schedule performance of
projects and programs using the EVPM method.

1.2 Application
This Standard can be applied to the measurement and reporting of
the cost and schedule performance of projects and programs. It can
be applied to any situation where a specified deliverable (product,
service, output, result) is to be produced by a specified date and with
finite resources.
The method can be used for the performance measurement of single
projects, for parts of projects (including contracted and sub-
contracted parts), for programs consisting of multiple projects, and
for organizations that manage by projects.
In the multi-project environment, EVPM provides metrics for
summary level reporting throughout the organization. The metrics
can be rolled up by output, by program, by organizational unit,
organizational objective, key performance indicator, or other
organization-specific summarisation required for effective
management reporting.
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1.3 Definitions (Normative)

For the purposes of this Standard, the definitions below apply.

1.3.1 Activity
An element of work performed during the course of a project. An
ACTIVITY normally has an expected duration, an expected cost, and
expected resource requirements. ACTIVITIES can be subdivided into
tasks.

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 AS 4817-2006 Project performance measurement using Earned
Value
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