New EVM contract standard issued by NASA

An interim rule to apply earned-value management to NASA’s major acquisition contracts and to those worth at least $20 million has been issued by the agency.

Under the new rule published earlier this month in the Federal Register:

• NASA will require EVM in all development and production contracts and subcontracts worth $20 million or more; major acquisition contracts valued at less than $20 million will follow the EVM guidelines outlined in the compliance standard already created by the Office of Management and Budget.
• Contracts and subcontracts valued at $50 million or more must have the EVM clause formally validated and accepted by the government.
• For contracts and subcontracts worth less than $20 million and not classified as major acquisitions, EVM application is not required, and implementation will be left up to the discretion of the program manager.
• Contracts for nondevelopmental engineering support services, steady state operations, basic and applied research, and routine services are not required to include EVM.

Contractors must document that their EVM systems comply with the ANSI/Electronic Industries Alliance-748 EVM standard. Also, contractors must describe how they expect to follow the EVM and how they will evaluate their compliance with the EVM system in the contract.

NASA is accepting comments on the interim rule through Jan. 12.

-Kerri Hostetler, WashingtonTechnology.com