DM: Needs a delivery leader who actively uses EVM — CPI and SPI are not buzzwords for this person, they are weekly management tools — and who has owned P&L; on Fixed Bid engagements with real commercial consequences.
Experience: 15+ years total, minimum 6 years in delivery management with P&L; accountability across multiple concurrent client engagements.
Project Management and EVM — Non Negotiable:
• PMP certified — must be able to apply it, not just hold the certification
• Deep working knowledge of IPECC — has formally structured engagements through all five phases with documented artefacts at each stage
• Integrates SDLC within each project management phase — understands how technical delivery phases map to governance phases and manages both simultaneously
• Earned Value Management is mandatory — must actively use EVM metrics to manage delivery health:
• Calculates and tracks Planned Value, Earned Value, and Actual Cost on active projects
• Reports CPI — Cost Performance Index and SPI — Schedule Performance Index to leadership and clients as standard governance output
• Uses CPI below 0.9 as a trigger for immediate recovery plan — not just a reporting number
• Uses SPI below 0.85 as a trigger for client escalation conversation — proactively, not reactively
• Able to calculate Cost Variance and Schedule Variance and translate these into business language for executive stakeholders
• Identifies critical path risks early — raises them before they become delivery failures, not after
• Manages formal scope baseline — any change to baseline is a documented, approved event