Earned Value Management Agent-Based Simulation Model

Abstract

Agile project management (APM) can be defined as an iterative approach that promotes satisfying customer requirements, adjusts to change, and develops a working product in rapidly changing environments. Managers usually apply agile management as the project management approach in projects requiring extraordinary speed and flexibility in their processes. Earned value management (EVM) is a fundamental part of project management to establish practical measures. Often, managers use a task board to visually represent the work on a project and the path to completion. Still, managing an agile project can be a challenging endeavor. In this paper, we propose an agent-based model describing the management of tasks within a project using earned value assessment and a task board. Our model illustrates how EVM yields an efficient method to measure a project’s performance by comparing actual progress against planned activities, thus facilitating the formulation of more accurate predicted estimations. As proof of concept, we leverage our implementation to calculate EVM performance indexes according to a performance measurement baseline (PMB) in a task board fashion.