With the increased use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products, managers of software development projects must plan and track performance of projects that have new challenges and risks. A system developer may be required to integrate multiple COTS products with newly developed custom components and legacy system components. How are these new activities and tasks planned and monitored? Can traditional management methods be used?
Earned Value is a project management tool used extensively to plan and monitor performance against the plan. This paper's focus is on the use of Earned Value in the context of a COTS-Based System (CBS). It's written for an audience already familiar with Earned Value Project Management; only the basic definitions are discussed here with the associated terminology. A bibliography is included, offering good sources for obtaining more in-depth information on Earned Value history and methodology