Schedule and cost management are the most essential parts of project lifecycle management and many projects fail as a result of not managing these critical components effectively. The most commonly used tool for project schedule management is Microsoft Office Project, which is designed to assist project managers in developing schedules, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing budgets and analyzing workloads. The most common technique used for cost management is earned value management (EVM), a project management technique used for measuring project progress in an objective manner that combines measurements of project scope, schedule and cost performance within a single integrated methodology. EVM is becoming the standard across the world for this purpose in both the private and public sector and many organizations are now adopting this technique to manage their projects. In the public sector, EVM is mandated for all government projects in the United States and many other countries are following suit. Earned Value Management Using Microsoft(R) Office Project is the first reference to effectively combine the most widely used scheduling tool with the most widely accepted cost management technique. It is a practical guide to end-to-end scheduling and cost management using Microsoft Office Project that includes a CD-ROM of a limited version of a unique EVM software tool that will help practitioners more effectively manage their projects, track and report the status and progress of projects, and take necessary action before their projects fail beyond repair. This text is an excellent complement to whatever Microsoft Office Project guide that you may be using and a significant addition to the literature on how to use EVM.


Sham Dayal, PMP, has over 12 years of practical experience in the IT industry where he specializes in managing projects using EVM techniques with Microsoft Project software. Mr. Dayal currently holds a program management position with MphasiS BFL Ltd, an EDS company, and is co-founder of Connoizor Software Ltd, a company that specializes in software tools and templates, project execution, and product development. Mr. Dayal was the first person at MphasiS to successfully implement EVM for project tracking (progress, status and forecasting) and was instrumental in creating a new technique for tracking the progress of production support projects. This new technique, based on the EVM concept, won a Quality Knowledge Excellence Award. Mr. Dayal is a frequent speaker on EVM and has been published in leading journals on EVM pertaining to more effective project lifecycle management. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a master’s in Applied Statistics.