RAND Corporation researchers facilitated the surveying of the U.S. Department of Defense earned value management (EVM)–analyst workforce and described the population across several dimensions. Insight into the EVM-analyst workforce is necessary for the development and integration of EVM competencies across the defense acquisition workforce.

The U.S. Department of Defense's Earned Value Management–Analyst Workforce

Stephanie Young, Daniel Tremblay, Roland J. Yardley

ResearchPublished Jan 14, 2016

The role of earned value management (EVM) as a tool for integrated program management across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has increased in prominence in recent years. The focal point for all policy, guidance, and competency relating to EVM is the deputy director of the Performance Assessments and Root Cause Analyses (PARCA) Earned Value Management (EVM) division, who serves as the functional lead for EVM, a cross-functional acquisition community. As a cross-functional community, EVM faces challenges in workforce management that communities in designated career fields do not face. EVM is not a career field in itself, and DoD does not systematically track its workforce for the purposes of workforce planning in the same way that it tracks members of designated career fields. Yet, insight into the EVM-analyst workforce is necessary for the execution of PARCA's responsibilities to support the development and integration of EVM competencies across the defense acquisition workforce. The research reported here surveyed the DoD EVM-analyst workforce and described the population across several dimensions. Although this survey was the first of its kind, it should be considered a first rather than final step toward understanding the EVM-analyst workforce.

Key Takeaways

The 1,257 Earned Value Management Analysts in the U.S. Department of Defense Are a Somewhat Homogeneous Group

  • Almost half are in the business — financial management (BFM) career field. More than 80 percent are civilians. Almost half are in the so-called Fourth Estate: organizations in the Department of Defense but not military departments or combatant commands.
  • About 16 percent are support contractors.
  • More than half perform EVM duties full time.
  • More than two-thirds of government EVM analysts in the Air Force are in business and financial management or business cost estimating. Almost three-fourths in the Navy are in business and financial management. Almost half in the Army are in business and financial management or business cost estimating. Almost half in the Fourth Estate are in business and financial management.
  • Government EVM analysts are split nearly down the middle between the Defense Contract Management Agency and the military departments, with just a few in other agencies.

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Young, Stephanie, Daniel Tremblay, and Roland J. Yardley, The U.S. Department of Defense's Earned Value Management–Analyst Workforce. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2016. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1254.html.
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This research was sponsored by the PARCA EVM division and conducted within the Acquisition and Technology Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community.

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