A range of purposes including financial or internal auditing, increasing bonding capacity or lines of credit, due diligence during an acquisition, or the desire to learn from existing projects to improve future projects might lead an organization to evaluate an entire project portfolio. While evaluating more than 40 projects over a 5 year period, the author developed methods for and insights in applying an earned value analysis (EVA) framework to the project portfolio. While expert judgment forms the ultimate foundation for any assessment of this type, the EVA framework proved to be as valuable in generating the right questions as in generating the "right" answers. This paper will include an introduction to the concept as well as a refresher on EVA concepts, an explanation of its suitability to portfolio evaluation, a description of the portfolio analyzed, a discussion of how EVA was applied and some potential pitfalls using project data samples, key lessons learned, and suggestions for other uses.
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