What is earned value management?

Earned value management (EVM) is a method that combines scope, schedule, and cost to measure whether a project is ahead or behind and over or under budget — with objective indices.

EVM compares planned value, earned value (work actually completed), and actual cost to produce indices like CPI (cost performance) and SPI (schedule performance), plus a forecast of the final cost.

It answers 'are we on track?' with numbers instead of opinion, and it degrades honestly when data is missing rather than showing a fake on-target reading.