S920 Legislation Will Radically Alter the EVM Landscape

Original post - October 05, 2009

A new Bill in Congress will radically alter the Earned Value Management landscape.

Proposed Legislation S920 will require the application of Earned Value Management for US Government IT projects over $500K. These projects and their performance will be visible on a new government dashboard. The dashboard will provide the variance between planned and actual costs for 6000 US Government IT projects.

Vivek Kundra the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) has committed to publish this dashboard and it's information for the 6000 IT investments made by the US federal government. The intent is to hold government CIOs accountable for IT Costs and Schedules for these investments and to allow the American people visibility of the spending of federal IT money. Mr. Kundra has committed to make this information both public and transparent across the federal government.

Mr. Kundra says the Office of Management and Budget announced the release of the beta version of the dashboard in June. It will detail the IT projects for the largest 25 federal agencies. Previously, Mr. Kundra has said improving how agencies spend the $71 billion IT budget is a major goal for his office. That improvement, he said, starts with the agency CIOs.

The proposed S920 legislation will require the use of Earned Value Management for quarterly reporting of all IT projects over $500K.

• This is a radical departure from previous dollar levels that required the application of Earned Value Management.  
• IT projects previously required the use of Earned Value Management at lower dollar levels than other types of projects.
• The typical level previously ranged from $1m-$10M before any EVM requirements were invoked.
• The range differed across various Agencies and levels of risks.

Mr. Kundra made this announcement at the beginning of July and many Agencies will be challenged to meet these Earned Value requirements.  Earned Value Management within government Agencies has been at various levels of maturity.  Many of the Agencies have already struggled to meet the existing, less rigorous Earned Value Management thresholds. Agencies and Suppliers will be will find the new requirements S920 requirements very challenging.

If you are faced with the new S920 legislation challenges and are looking to meet this new stricter requirement, call Pinnacle today to discuss your situation and learn how we have helped many other Agencies with their Earned Value and Project Management capabilities.

We offer free consultations to all Federal Agencies to help you establish a Roadmap for EV and Integrated Project Management implementation.

Pinnacle has a very strong, successful record of helping Federal Agencies and their Suppliers with their EVM and Enterprise Project Management implementations.  We have also implemented some of the largest IT Enterprise and Portfolio Management systems in the world.   Give Us a Call or