What are the inputs and the steps in applying earned value management as a project management tool?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The two pieces of data required to implement earned value management are the work breakdown structure and a time-phased project budget. The work breakdown structure identifies the individual work packages and tasks necessary to accomplish the project. It also gives us some understanding of the hierarchy of tasks, in order to set up work packages and identify personnel needs. The time-phased budget allows us to identify the correct sequencing of tasks and enables the project team to determine the points in the project when budget money is likely to be spent in pursuit of those tasks. These two pieces of information are combined to form the project baseline, which shows time-phased activities and expenditures for them.
Earned value is calculated by applying the percentage completion of all project activities to the expenses of those activities. We can then compare the planned budget against the actual earned value, using the original project budget baseline.