Earned Value Management Still Being Ignored

Back in 1996, then Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Paul G. Kaminski announced that he accepted the recently published industry guidelines for earned value management systems (EVMS) as replacements for the Defense Department Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria (C/SCSC).

Dr. Kaminski said at the time, "The change from C/SCSC to EVMS marks a major shift in responsibility from government to industry and supports the 'insight, not oversight' philosophy underlying DoD acquisition reform initiatives."

As a result, Defense stated, the shift in responsibility will benefit industry by permitting more efficient, single internal processes that meet all program management needs, and will benefit the government by improving contract administration while at the same time reducing oversight, with savings for the taxpayer.

Apparently, 12 years later, many DOD programs still haven’t got that message.