Video Recommendation: “Earned Value Management & MS Project 2010” (by Simon Hoare, via YouTube)

Sample Project: To Paint 20 Portraits on-time and on-deadline

Recommended Video by Simon Hoare: “Earned Value Management and MS Project 2010″

Many project managers at first find the Earned Value Management (EVM) formulas daunting to learn.

– The good news is that MS Project can do the EVM math for you.

– And more good news is that this video by Simon Hoare does an excellent job of presenting:

1. EVM – Explaining the key concepts of Earned Value, in a colorful and easy-to-follow scenario (an artist who is commissioned to create 30 portraits to hang in a castle, on a deadline and budget), and

2. MS Project 2010 – The key screens, pull-downs, and fields for using the EVM calculations in Project 2010

My favorite things about this video:

• Hoare uses a fun scenario for a project of an artist commissioned to paint 20 portraits
• He provides a very clear explanation of EVM
• His screen-captures of MS Project are well-done and easy-to-follow
• He makes it ‘real-world’ by having the project encounter a delay, and using MS Project and EVM to report on it very clearly and easily (enabling the PM to suggest a change to bring things back on-track)
• I liked his treatment (at minute 15:30) of The 2 ways MS Project can do EVM Reporting: