A while back, I asked Controlling Chaos and The Project Management Podcast how Critical Chain scheduling and Earned Value Management were ever combined. Cornelius called in Allan Elder to answer my question in Episode 57. However, it was not as I expected and I wasn’t happy with the result. Essentially, they are just two different books. One to manage the project (CC buffer administration) and one to report on the project to external stakeholders who would like to see EVM metrics.
I have started to write down some thoughts about how the Critical Chain methodology (which I love) can be used in a more efficient way that earns value. Although I have a lot of research to do on both, I believe I have the basic concept down. I even have some formulas. It basically allows you to use the Critical Chain buffer utilization directly to yield EVM metrics, without having to go back to re-baseline your schedule in the traditional critical path format. According to what I have read, the software packages that perform this conversion do it in this way. However, I don’t know if these outputs are useful. A Critical Chain project is run in a fundamentally new way than a traditional critical pathway project. Without taking those differences into consideration, the EVM outputs won’t be very useful.
My goal is to provide a method for calculating real-time EVM metrics that is both useful to external stakeholders and to the project team. EVM is so ingrained that Critical Chain is often met with resistance. This is because EVM doesn’t make sense with Critical Chain. You’re left with a large percentage of projects that cannot use Critical Chain.
This blog will be updated as I continue to research and come up for new ideas.