to Firm Fixed Price Contracts Through a Multi-Perspective
Analytical Framework for Mixed Contract Portfolios
A framework developed and validated through real-life CAPEX applications across multiple industries
FEATURED PAPER
By Alexandre Rodrigues
Foreword by Wayne Abba
Portugal and USA
Foreword
I am pleased to endorse this timely paper on a subject that deserves serious attention: how to apply Earned Value Management (EVM) in a practical, disciplined way to Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contracts. I have long believed that EVM is first and foremost a management discipline, not a contractual compliance or reporting ritual. That distinction is especially important now, as the United States Government places renewed emphasis on fixed-price contracting.
The question is not whether FFP contracts should be managed with objective performance information; they must be. The more useful question is how to do so when the government does not receive the contractor’s actual cost data. This paper addresses that question directly. It shows how EVM concepts can be extended using the information that is available, including the effects of change orders, baseline maintenance, and the need to distinguish true performance variance from owner-directed scope and cost growth.
What I find most valuable is the paper’s emphasis on practice. The author uses case studies to show how sound program control principles can be adapted to the realities of fixed-price work while still providing decision makers with meaningful visibility into progress, risk, and emerging cost consequences.
For government portfolio managers, the value of that visibility depends on consistency. They need management data that can be compared across programs and contract types, so that performance trends, resource demands, and emerging risks can be understood at the portfolio level, not merely contract by contract. EVM is uniquely suited to that purpose because, properly applied, it integrates cost, schedule, and technical performance management into a single disciplined framework. Those elements are necessary for effective management under any contract type, including FFP…
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How to cite this paper: Rodrigues, A. (2026). Extending Earned Value Management to Firm Fixed Price Contracts Through a Multi-Perspective Analytical Framework for Mixed Contract Portfolios; PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue VIII, August. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pmwj167-Aug2026-Rodrigues-Extending-EVM-to-Firm-Fixed-Price-Contracts-2.pdf
About the author
Alexandre Rodrigues, Ph.D.
Lisbon, Portugal
Alexandre Rodrigues, Eng. Ph.D., PMP® is Executive Partner at PMO Projects Group, providing advanced project management consulting, training, and advisory services to clients across Europe, Africa, the Americas, and other international markets. Throughout his career, Dr. Rodrigues has advised a broad range of leading public and private organizations around the globe.
Dr. Rodrigues has extensive experience supporting the delivery and governance of major CAPEX programs and portfolios, particularly in the mining, oil and gas, energy, defense, and infrastructure sectors. He has led the implementation of Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS) for the planning and control of multi-billion-dollar projects and programs and has advised organizations on project governance, portfolio management, organizational project management maturity, and project controls. He is also a Senior Consultant with the Boston-based Cutter Consortium | Arthur D. Little.
Alongside his consulting career, Dr. Rodrigues has more than a decade of university teaching experience in Project Management and System Dynamics, having lectured at several European universities and supervised Master’s and doctoral research. Earlier in his career, he worked in project management within the defense and consulting industries in both the United Kingdom and the United States and gained several years of professional experience as a software engineer. He regularly publishes in professional and peer-reviewed journals and has been invited to speak at numerous international conferences.
His international professional contributions include co-organizing the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Managing and Modeling Complex Projects (Kyiv, Ukraine, 1996); serving as Guest Editor of the April 2001 Cutter IT Journal, chaired by Edward Yourdon, on Multicultural Project Management; and contributing an invited chapter on Earned Value Management in the International Scene to the Association for Project Management (UK) Yearbook 2003/04. He also served as the PMForum International Correspondent for Portugal and was recognized as a PM Ambassador for Portugal by PMForum in 2009.
Dr. Rodrigues has made significant contributions to the advancement of the project management profession internationally. He was the Founding President of the PMI Portugal Chapter, served as a PMI Component Mentor for the EMEA Region (2005–2007), and participated in the PMI teams responsible for developing the 3rd Edition of the PMBOK® Guide and the 1st Edition of OPM3®. He also served on the Congress Project Action Teams (CoPAT) for the PMI Global Congresses in Prague (2004) and Edinburgh (2005). He later joined the core teams that developed the Second Edition of the PMI Practice Standard for Earned Value Management and the ANSI/PMI 19-006-2019 Standard for Earned Value Management. He is also a lead author of ISO 21512 – Earned Value Management Implementation Guide, currently under development. In recognition of his contributions to the discipline, he was appointed EVM Ambassador for Europe by the Earned Value Management Europe Association research project in 2012.
Dr. Rodrigues holds a five-year degree (Licenciatura) in Systems and Informatics Engineering and a Ph.D. in Management Sciences, specializing in Project Management and System Dynamics. During his doctoral research, he received the Mike Simpson Award from the Operational Research Society. He is a Project Management Professional (PMP®), a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI®), and was formerly a Member of the Portuguese Order of Engineers (Ordem dos Engenheiros).
