Jim Morin worked in the U.S. aerospace and defense industry for over 45 years, beginning at LMSC shortly after graduating from Santa Clara University in California.  He was a part of the small core of industrial engineers that formed Performance Technology Corp. and was instrumental in the development of Earned Value Management (EVM) in the 1960s.  He spent 15 years in prime contractor line, staff management and executive positions in the US defense industry, and has over 30 years in program management consulting, owning his own firm since 1986. 

Editor’s note:  Jim Morin was there when earned value was created and implemented within the US Department of Defence in the 1960s. We are honoured to have him share his knowledge about the early days of the EVM movement.  Portions of this interview were included in an article by Michael Hatfield that was previously published by the Project Management Institute (PMI).  The answers to questions below were provided by Mr. Morin and are published with his consent.  For more information about the early days of EVM, please read the paper by Mr. Morin entitled “How it all Began: The Creation of Earned Value and the Evolution of C/SPCS and C/SCSC”, published in the December 2009 edition of PM World Today – at http://www.pmforum.org/library/second-edition/2009/PDFs/dec/SE-Morin-HowItAllBegan.pdf

On the Background and Evolution of Earned Value

PM World Today (PMWT): Jim, given the fact that you were involved in some of the early developments of what is now known as earned value management (EVM), can you tell us what, if anything, preceded the Cost/Schedule Control System Criteria (C/SCSC)?

Jim Morin: The DoD-wide C/SCSC was the third earned value system.  The first was Minuteman Earned Value, which was the basis for the Air Force’s Cost/Schedule Planning and Control System (C/SPCS), which, in turn, was the basis for C/SCSC.

PMWT: Can you elaborate about some of those predecessors of C/SCSC?  How did they come about?

Morin: Earned Value was the creation of A. Ernest ‘Ernie’ Fitzgerald.  In 1965, he founded a consulting firm by the name of Performance Technology Corporation (PTC), the core of which was a group of industrial engineers, including myself, who worked together at Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. (LMSC).

In the early 1960’s, Ernie was with Arthur Young.  He had helped sell the Air Force and the Navy on the development and implementation of an ‘Indirect Work Measurement’ methodology that could be used as a basis for staffing the indirect organizations.  The program was implemented as the Group Attainment Program (GAP) at Lockheed, Boeing and other companies, and as the Performance Attainment Program (PAR), which I developed and implemented at McDonnell Aircraft after working with Ernie and the team at LMSC…

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