Coast Guard seeks contractor for EVM

The Coast Guard Aviation Logistics Center will outsource its Earned Value Management (EVM) system for overseeing approximately $400 million worth of projects over the next five years, according to a notice.

The service published a solicitation for the work July 6 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site. The implementation is a small business set-aside. The contractor will implement an EVM system for all acquisition, construction and improvement projects at the logistics center, the service said.

EVAM is a project management approach that provides objective reports of projects' status, produces early warning signs of impending schedule delays and cost overruns, and provides unbiased estimates of a program's total costs, according to the Government Accountability Office. In 2005, the Office of Management and Budget issued guidance to federal agencies on using EVM; however, federal agencies do not always do so effectively, GAO has reported.

For the Coast Guard program, the measure of success will be delivery of appropriate metrics: “The government’s measurement of project success is defined by the presence of a robust Earned Value Management System system producing accurate earned value metrics,” states the solicitation.

Monthly metrics to be produced and used include cost variance, schedule variance, cost performance index, schedule performance index, variance at completion, and estimate at completion, the solicitation states. Responses are due by July 27.