Project management is the process and activity of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling

resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals in scientific or daily problems.

Project management is the application of processes or methods to achieve

the project objectives.
Project management, then, is the application of knowledge, skills and
techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. Its a strategic
competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to business
goals and thus, better compete in their markets.
Traditionally, project management includes a number of elements: four to five
process groups, and a control system. Regardless of the methodology or
terminology used, the same basic project management processes will be used.
Major process groups generally include:[7]

Initiation
Planning or design
Production or execution
Monitoring and controlling
Closing

Baseline
Term Definition
Baseline is the value or condition against which all future measurements will be compared. The baseline is a point of
reference. In project management there are three baselines schedule baseline, cost baseline and scope baseline.
The combination of all three baselines is referred to as the performance measurement baseline.
A baseline is a fixed schedule, which represents the standard that is used to measure the performance of the project.
Every time a change to the scope of the project is approved, the schedule should be adjusted and a new revision of
the baseline should be used instead. Many project management software packages have a feature, which allows
the project manager to maintain a baseline schedule and track revisions to it.
In project management, establishing the baseline is the formal end of project planning and the beginning of project
execution and control. Controlling the project baseline is critical to project success. Changes can drastically impact a
project and if you dont know where you started it is difficult to control the project. It is equally important to begin with
clearly understood requirements, accurate costs and schedule estimates. After the initial iterative planning process,
the planning baselines must be frozen and put under configuration control.
Developing a project baseline for large-scale projects will include building a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and
establishing the key relationships between scope, schedule, costs, risk management and the management of these.

Other important project baseline considerations are change management, status reporting, and a continued
incorporation of lessons learned throughout the baseline development process.
Good budget tracking, cost accounting, resource utilization and allocation, scope control, and schedule management
are major factors that influence the success of any project. Project managers must track the progress of tasks, costs
and time against the baseline and use repeatable procedures to gather data, assess earned value and report status.

Earned value management (EVM), or Earned value project/performance management (EVPM)

is a project management technique for measuring project performance and progress in an objective
manner.
Earned value management is a project management technique for measuring project performance
and progress. It has the ability to combine measurements of the project management triangle:

Scope

Schedule, and

Costs

In a single integrated system, Earned Value Management is able to provide accurate forecasts of
project performance problems, which is an important contribution for project management.
Early EVM research showed that the areas of planning and control are significantly impacted by its
use; and similarly, using the methodology improves both scope definition as well as the analysis of
overall project performance. More recent research studies have shown that the principles of EVM
are positive predictors of project success.[1] Popularity of EVM has grown in recent years beyond
government contracting, in which sector its importance continues to rise [2] (e.g., recent
new DFARS rules[3]), in part because EVM can also surface in and help substantiate contract
disputes.[4]
Essential features of any EVM implementation include
1. a project plan that identifies work to be accomplished,
2. a valuation of planned work, called Planned Value (PV) or Budgeted Cost of Work
Scheduled (BCWS), and

3. pre-defined earning rules (also called metrics) to quantify the accomplishment of work,
called Earned Value (EV) or Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP).
EVM implementations for large or complex projects include many more features, such as indicators
and forecasts of cost performance (over budget or under budget) and schedule performance (behind
schedule or ahead of schedule). However, the most basic requirement of an EVM system is that it
quantifies progress using PV and EV.

Application example[edit]
Project A has been approved for a duration of 1 year and with the budget of X. It was also planned,
that the project spends 50% of the approved budget in the first 6 months. If now 6 months after the
start of the project a Project Manager would report that he has spent 50% of the budget, one can
initially think, that the project is perfectly on plan. However in reality the provided information is not
sufficient to come to such a conclusion. The project can spend 50% of the budget, whilst finishing
only 25% of the work, which would mean the project is not doing well; or the project can spend 50%
of the budget, whilst completing 75% of the work, which would mean that project is doing better than
planned. EVM is meant to address such and similar issues.