A Study On Improvement And Application Of The Earned Value Method For Cost-Schedule In Construction Projects

Construction projects is irreversible and a critical part in the whole process from project visualization, designing, and financing until project completion and operation. The effect of project construction directly affects the future payoff of the project. Therefore, monitoring on the process of project construction is essential for achieving the project objectives. Quality, schedule, and cost are important goals among a system of goals of projects. In this paper, Quality goal is set as the precondition for cost and schedule goal and Earned Value Method for the schedule-cost joint monitoring performance evaluation is set as our study target. On the basis of comprehensive study on relevant literatures of the project cost-schedule joint monitoring theory and practical technique, the following studies have been carried out on the existing problems in the application of the traditional Earned Value Method in the theoretical model and project management.Firstly, a Multi-level Earned Value Management model is put forward, which offers more details for the cause of delay (advance) and cost overruns (cost savings), and help avoid the aggregate mistake of positive deviation and negative deviation in different subprojects. The further breakdown of project unit price distinguished the market factor and technical factor which have effects on project management. These improvements give supervisors more accurate information for making decision.Secondly, in order to cope with the problems of incomplete information and inaccurate estimation of development trend and outcome, a stochastic simulation Earned Value method under uncertainty is put forward, which can give a reliable decision tool for risk analysis and decision. In this method, three uncertain factors are considered, that is, stochastic factor, fuzzy factor, and unascertained factor.Finally, we studied the impact of cost-schedule deviation on project, established the project warning system for cost-schedule monitoring, set the warning area and control area, and took three ways to handle deviation with different intensity such as ignoring, tuning control, and amending plan. This warning and monitoring system gradually adjusts the warning upper and lower boundary and the monitoring upper and lower boundary along with the project completion so as to assure the accuracy of performance monitoring and the successful execution of the project plan when the project approaches the target. This study offered an extension to the current Earned Value theoretical model for the project monitoring performance evaluation. Through our new model, supervisors not only master the whole status of the project cost-schedule progress, but also understand the performance of subprojects so as to improve monitoring capability of cost-schedule in projects. Combining research and project management practice, and research and project management software application, this study not only comes up with some theoretical innovation, but also has the great significance of steering project management practice.