Earned Value Management

EVM is a messed up concept. I estimate the design will take 20 weeks. It takes 10 weeks. I earned 20 weeks of value, yea!!! Except there's no value to the customer. Don't give intrinsic value to time- give value to the actual value delivered to the customer.

Of course, working for the government, they can demand that you give value to the non-real tasks. I tried to read the document from the CIO Council, searching for any guidance that the tasks to which value is assigned are tasks that have direct value to the customer, not tasks like "create test plan".

In IT projects, value only comes from value delivered to customers. Putting meetings on the schedule and "earning value" by getting to the end just doesn't make sense.