Essential features of any EVM implementation include:
A project plan that identifies work to be accomplished
A valuation of planned work, called planned value (PV) or budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS)
Pre-defined "earning rules" (also called metrics) to quantify the accomplishment of work, called earned value (EV) or budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP)
Actual Cost which is also known as Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP)[5]
A plot of project cumulative costs vs time especially to show both early date and late date curves
Earned value management
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, time, 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