Let's Talk EVM

Co-hosts: Amber Young and Barbara Phillips
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Management
  • Updated Weekly

A public service podcast to engage with the Earned Value Management (EVM) community

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 41: Quantitative Risk Modeling - Your Project's Crystal Ball with Lorrie Tietze

    What if your project schedule isn't wrong, but it's only showing you one of a thousand possible futures? In Episode 41: Quantitative Risk Modeling - Your Project's Crystal Ball, Amber and Barbara welcome Lorrie Tietze, a nuclear engineer turned quantitative risk modeling expert whose career has taken her from international manufacturing operations to helping major projects and programs understand uncertainty. With decades of practical experience, Lorrie brings a refreshing combination of mathematical rigor, real-world examples, and a healthy skepticism of estimates that appear more certain than they really are. Most projects begin with a schedule, a budget, and a set of assumptions about how the work will unfold. But what happens when those assumptions meet reality? What if the activities we aren't worried about become the ones that threaten our completion date? And what if the risks we label as low or medium are quietly accumulating into something far more consequential? Lorrie introduces the fascinating world of quantitative risk modeling, where uncertainty isn't simply identified or ranked. It's examined through the relationships between activities, risks, time, and cost. Together, she, Amber, and Barbara explore why a single-point estimate can create a false sense of confidence, what probability really means when making project commitments, and how modeling can reveal possibilities that traditional risk assessments might overlook. The conversation also challenges some familiar project management habits. Why do organizations sometimes insist on dates before understanding whether they're achievable? What makes a risk model trustworthy? And how can project teams use the results to make better decisions about mitigation, contingency, and the commitments they make to leadership and customers? But perhaps the most interesting question is about the people behind the model. Can quantitative analysis change not just what a project team knows, but how openly they discuss uncertainty, challenge assumptions, and build trust? Whether you're an EVM practitioner, scheduler, risk analyst, project manager, or executive responsible for delivering results, this episode invites you to rethink what it means to have confidence in a plan. A crystal ball won't eliminate uncertainty. But what if it could help you ask better questions about the future?

    Episode 41: Quantitative Risk Modeling - Your Project's Crystal Ball with Lorrie Tietze

  2. Oct 16

    Episode 40: A Day in the Life of an "Analyst" with Clay Thompson

    What does an EVM analyst actually do all day? And more importantly, what does it really mean to be an analyst? In Episode 40: A Day in the Life of an "Analyst", Amber and Barbara welcome Clay Thompson, a business manager and passionate EVM practitioner who leads a team of cost analysts supporting a major defense program. With experience ranging from his early days as a junior earned value analyst to leading a team of his own, Clay brings a practical, firsthand perspective on what happens behind the numbers. Clay takes us inside the monthly rhythm of Earned Value Management, from collecting performance data and reviewing variances to updating forecasts, managing baseline changes, and preparing customer reports. It's a behind-the-scenes look at the work that keeps an EVM system running, including the deadlines, decisions, and everyday challenges that don't always make it into a textbook. But the conversation quickly moves beyond the mechanics to a more interesting question: Are we really analyzing, or are we just processing information? What separates a good analyst from a great one? How do you turn data into knowledge that a Control Account Manager or Project Manager can actually use? And how do analysts move from being the people who produce reports to becoming trusted partners in understanding performance and making decisions? Clay, Amber, and Barbara explore the many different roles and titles within project controls, the importance of mentorship, communication, and technical curiosity, and the skills that matter most when developing the next generation of EVM professionals. Because understanding the numbers is only part of the job. Understanding the people, the project, and the decisions those numbers support is where things get interesting. Whether you're just beginning your career in project controls, managing a team of analysts, or relying on their work to make important decisions, this episode offers a fresh perspective on a role that is essential to project success but often misunderstood. Because the real value of an analyst isn't just knowing what the numbers say. It's knowing what questions to ask next.

    Episode 40: A Day in the Life of an "Analyst" with Clay Thompson

  3. Oct 9

    Episode 39: Where it All Breaks Down, the WBS, with Vikram Basude

    What if one of the most important decisions in project management happens before we ever start measuring performance? In Episode 39 - Where It All Breaks Down, the WBS, with Vikram Basude, Amber and Barbara welcome Vikram for a conversation about the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), one of the most fundamental elements of project planning and Earned Value Management, and one that deserves far more attention than it often receives. The WBS is more than a way to organize work. It shapes how we define scope, establish accountability, structure budgets, integrate schedules, and ultimately understand project performance. But how much detail is enough? How do we balance standardization with the unique needs of a project? And what happens when the way we organize our work limits what we can learn from it? Drawing on his experience in project controls and research into WBS structures, Vikram joins Amber and Barbara to explore the relationship between project breakdowns, performance visibility, and meaningful analysis. Along the way, the conversation moves into some fascinating territory, including historical project data, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and the possibilities that emerge when we begin looking at project information differently. Because the WBS isn't just about breaking work into smaller pieces. It's about creating a structure that allows us to understand the whole. Whether you're building a baseline, managing a project, analyzing performance, or exploring the future of project controls, this episode invites you to reconsider something we often take for granted. When it all breaks down, what does your WBS allow you to see?

    Episode 39: Where it All Breaks Down, the WBS, with Vikram Basude

  4. Oct 2

    Episode 38: What Changes, What Endures - EVM & Fostering One Strong Industrial Base with Wayne Abba and Ivan Bembers

    What happens when you tear a system down to its structural beams and start rebuilding? The recent Fostering One Strong Industrial Base memorandum could represent a significant reset for Earned Value Management - changing government oversight, system validation, the role of the IBR, access to contractor data, and the relationship between government and industry. But change raises a bigger question: What should change, and what must endure? Amber Young and Barbara Phillips welcome back Wayne Abba and Ivan Bembers for a candid conversation about where EVM came from, what may have been lost along the way, and what we should be careful not to lose as the system evolves. They explore the original intent of the IBR, the shift that occurred when EVMS became a contractor business system, third-party validation, authoritative data, government oversight, industry ownership, and the importance of preserving institutional knowledge. At the center of it all is a fundamental idea: EVM exists to identify problems early, inform decisions, and help projects succeed. Because modernization does not have to mean starting over. If we are rebuilding, perhaps the most important question is not simply what we remove - but what wisdom we carry forward. References: DoW Memo: ⁠https://media.defense.gov/2026/Sep/15/2003997826/-1/-1/1/FOSTERING-ONE-STRONG-INDUSTRIAL-BASE.PDF

    Episode 38: What Changes, What Endures - EVM & Fostering One Strong Industrial Base with Wayne Abba and Ivan Bembers

  5. Sep 25

    Episode 37: EVM in Different Circumstances with Alex Rodrigues

    Different projects. Different industries. Different circumstances. The same fundamental questions about performance. In Episode 37: EVM in Different Circumstances, Amber and Barbara welcome ⁠Alex Rodrigues⁠, a systems engineer, project management consultant, researcher, and longtime EVM practitioner whose work has taken him across industries, organizations, and countries around the world. From IT and infrastructure to mining, oil and gas, public investment, and private industry, Alex has encountered very different project environments. Yet across those differences, he has found something remarkably consistent: the fundamental logic of EVM still works. Alex shares how he first encountered EVM not as a contractual requirement or sophisticated compliance system, but while conducting research and looking for better ways to measure project performance. That beginning shaped the way he sees EVM today - as a logical framework built on relatively simple principles that can grow in sophistication depending on what a project actually needs. His experience raises an important question: How much of what we think of as “EVM” is truly fundamental, and how much comes from the particular environment in which we've learned to use it? The conversation moves through some very different circumstances, including fixed-price contracting, owner and contractor perspectives, contingency, baseline decisions, business value, and the challenge of getting useful performance information when the available data isn't perfect. Along the way, Alex uses real-world examples to show how perspective can change the way we interpret the same project situation and why applying EVM effectively requires understanding the decision the information is meant to support. But the bigger conversation is about versatility. Can EVM be adapted without losing what makes it EVM? Can organizations use the principles without importing every process, acronym, or convention that has grown around them? And could making EVM easier to understand help expand its value beyond the communities where it is already well established? For anyone who has ever heard that EVM is too complicated, too rigid, too government-focused, or simply “doesn't work here,” this episode offers a very different way to think about it. Maybe the circumstances change. Maybe the implementation changes. But good project management still needs a way to answer the same question: How are we really doing?

    Episode 37: EVM in Different Circumstances with Alex Rodrigues

  6. Sep 18

    Episode 36: Risks and Decisions with Michelle Storm

    We spend enormous amounts of time identifying, documenting, quantifying, and analyzing risk. But when it is finally time to make a decision, why do smart leaders sometimes ignore the data sitting right in front of them? In Episode 36: Risks and Decisions, Amber and Barbara welcome Michelle Storm, a project management and Earned Value Management professional with more than 20 years of experience, to explore risk from two very different but deeply connected perspectives: the discipline of managing uncertainty and the psychology of making decisions when the answer isn't clear. Michelle's experience spans program management processes, tools, training, risk and opportunity management, and the implementation of earned value systems across government and industry. The conversation starts with the fundamentals. What actually qualifies as a risk? How is an uncertain event different from uncertainty about how long something will take? When does a risk become an issue? And are the things sitting in our risk registers actually risks at all? Michelle challenges some common practices and explains why getting the language and concepts right matters. Risk management is its own discipline, and when we confuse the fundamentals, everything we build on top of them can become confused too. But then the conversation takes a fascinating turn from how we manage risk to how humans respond to it. Michelle dives into the psychology of decision-making under uncertainty and asks a question nearly every project controls professional has experienced: Why can we present leaders with sound analysis and compelling data, only to watch them make a completely different decision? The discussion explores cognitive and behavioral biases, emotion, framing, optimism, confirmation bias, and the ways our perception of uncertainty can influence what we ultimately choose to do. This isn't just an area of professional interest for Michelle. It is at the heart of her doctoral research, where she is studying the relationship between how program managers make decisions under uncertainty and project success. The conversation raises an intriguing possibility: perhaps improving project outcomes isn't only about producing better data. Maybe we also need to better understand the humans making decisions with it. Whether you're a risk manager, scheduler, cost analyst, CAM, project manager, or leader responsible for making difficult decisions, this episode will make you think differently about uncertainty. Because identifying risk is only the beginning. The real question is what happens when someone has to decide what to do about it.

    Episode 36: Risks and Decisions with Michelle Storm

  7. Sep 11

    Episode 35: What is the Truth? with Roland Atencio and Chelsea Moore

    You have the data. But do you have the facts? And even if you have the facts... do you have the truth? In Episode 35 – What is the Truth?, Amber and Barbara welcome father-daughter EVM practitioners Roland Atencio and Chelsea Moore for a conversation about what it really takes to create information leaders can trust. Roland brings more than two decades of experience spanning scheduling, EVM, and analytics, while Chelsea brings her own years of experience in scheduling and EVM - along with a perspective shaped by learning from Roland as both a mentor and her dad. The conversation begins with a deceptively simple question: How do you know your data is true? Organizations can have spreadsheets, schedules, accounting systems, cost tools, dashboards, and countless individual analyses, but if those sources tell different stories, what should a decision maker believe? Roland and Chelsea explore the importance of traceability, validation, consistency, and establishing a trusted source of truth. But Roland makes an important distinction: validated data gives you facts. The real value comes when those facts can be trusted enough to support decisions. And that is where this episode becomes about much more than data. EVM is a team sport. Schedulers, cost analysts, CAMs, accounting, project controls, and program managers all contribute pieces of the information leaders ultimately use. Bringing those pieces together requires integration, but it also requires trust, accountability, culture, and people skills. When the data reveals a problem, how do you investigate it without turning the conversation into blame? How do you help someone understand the downstream effect of an issue while preserving their ownership of the work? And how do you create an expectation of excellence across the entire system? Then the conversation takes a more personal turn. Roland talks about the responsibility experienced practitioners have to pass their knowledge to the next generation before hard-earned lessons disappear. For Chelsea, that transfer has been happening for years. And some of the most important lessons her dad passed down weren't technical at all. As Chelsea puts it, “data doesn't have feelings, but people do.” Technical knowledge, dashboards, analytics, and metrics matter, but knowing how to work with people may be what ultimately makes all of it successful. This episode is about finding the truth in our data - but it is also about what we do with that truth once we find it. It is about trust, integration, accountability without blame, and preserving the knowledge of one generation while giving the next generation room to make EVM even better. Because the purpose isn't simply to produce the numbers. It's to create information we can trust, make better decisions, and ultimately serve the bigger mission.

    Episode 35: What is the Truth? with Roland Atencio and Chelsea Moore

  8. Sep 5

    Episode 34: EFCOG, NDIA IPMD, NASA Cost & Schedule Symposium Overview

    Three events. Three communities. And a surprisingly connected conversation about where project controls is headed next. In Episode 34 – ⁠EFCOG⁠,⁠ NDIA IPMD⁠, ⁠NASA Cost & Schedule Symposium Overview⁠, Amber and Barbara compare notes from three major industry gatherings spanning the Department of Energy, defense, and NASA communities: EFCOG, the NDIA Integrated Program Management Division Forum, and the NASA Cost & Schedule Symposium. With overlapping schedules sending Amber and Barbara to different events, this episode becomes their chance to bring the conversations back together and share what stood out. Rather than walking through every presentation, they focus on the themes that kept surfacing across organizations and disciplines. How do we get useful data into the hands of decision makers faster? What role do communication, leadership, and psychological safety play in whether that data is actually trusted and used? How are AI, analytics, scheduling, risk, and performance measurement changing the way practitioners work? And are we finally reaching a point where the EVM community can stop apologizing for EVM and simply move forward with it as a fundamental part of good program management? The conversation also explores the sometimes difficult handoffs between estimating and execution, the importance of preserving assumptions and risk information as projects move from one phase to another, and why strong project controls depend on more than a tool or a report. People change. Teams change. Projects change. The information has to survive those transitions. From emerging uses of AI and schedule analytics to debates about how we measure, forecast, communicate, and manage performance, Amber and Barbara offer a practitioner-level look at what people across these communities are wrestling with right now. And perhaps the biggest takeaway is not any single presentation at all. It is the community. Across DOE, defense, and NASA, many of the same practitioners, ideas, challenges, and conversations continue to intersect. These events create the space to challenge one another, share lessons, test new ideas, and keep moving the profession forward. If you have ever wondered what actually gets discussed when the EVM and project controls community gets together, this episode gives you a seat in the room. -------------- BONUS: Quagmire has the figurative definition of a predicament: A sticky, complicated, or dangerous situation with no easy solution or way out.

    Episode 34: EFCOG, NDIA IPMD, NASA Cost & Schedule Symposium Overview
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

A public service podcast to engage with the Earned Value Management (EVM) community

Information

  • Creator
    Co-hosts: Amber Young and Barbara Phillips
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    43
  • Show Website
    Let's Talk EVM

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