#65

S3E65: Earned Schedule with creator Walter Lipke

admin
July 21, 2021

In this episode, Dale and Val get into the geek speak, talking about an additional method to your Earned Value Management methodology. What you may not know is there is a time relative method called Earned Schedule. Val and Dale were fortunate to speak with the creator Walter Lipke and get his take on why this is a useful approach coupled with EVM and other methods to improve time adherence on projects. In this week’s pod, we welcomed Walt Lipke, creator of the Earned Schedule technique used by projects throughout the USA, UK and Australia.

Walt has 35 years of experience in the avionics industry. As well as being the creator of Earned Schedule, he has published over ninety articles. In 2017 the Australian Project Governance and Control Symposium honoured Walt by establishing the annual Walt Lipke Project Governance and Control Excellence Award. For more information on how to use Earned Schedule, visit https://www.earnedschedule.com/ During the pod, we discussed the following topics: Earned Schedule (ES) is effectively an extension to Earned Value Management. The most important development in ES is its ability to more accurately determine the completion date for projects that are behind schedule (or will deliver later than planned.) ES uses Earned Value (EV) performance data to generate the time-based information and uses very similar calculations to predict future performance. Earned Schedule can be used to “drill down” to identify where deficiencies or constraints may exist and where future rework may be needed if current performance does not change.

EVM has three different curves: Planned Value, Earned Value and Actual Cost. Once the Earned Value information has been established, you can use Earned Schedule to calculate when this should have been achieved. Earned Value needs to be in place in order to generate Earned Schedule data It is possible to derive calculated project end dates using ES. Different confidence levels can be used to support this. ES is still a new concept, it was created in 2002. This can lead to difficulties in embedding this in the project lifecycle as there is resistance to new concepts. Companies such as Project Flight Deck, Scrum Start, Encore Analytics and Project Tracker all have accessible toolsets to help calculate ES.

The challenge of this is making it relevant to Project Managers. Many PM’s are familiar with showing progress against milestones and using ES can be seen as complex. Having visual aids to show progress can help in this regard. It is important to have the right level of data in order to use EVM/ES. Where there are major uncertainties in the project lifecycle such as software, it is useful to use EVM/ES in smaller parts of the project to get the right level of information.

The most important criteria to the success or failure of EVM is integrity. It is possible to manipulate the data in all directions, therefore it is the role of the PMO to ensure data is transparent and audit-proof. There is a risk of hidden re-work if the schedule data is manipulated to avoid scrutiny. If you would like to read more about Earned Schedule, you can purchase Walt’s book from the following website:

This podcast is brought to you by: