Episode 5: Love-Hate-Love about EVM with Luis Contreras

Feb 6

Release: 02/06/26

This February episode of Let’s Talk EVM leans into the Valentine’s theme with a “love–hate–love sandwich” — and welcomes ⁠Luis Contreras⁠, CEO of AzTech International, to talk candidly about what makes Earned Value Management both challenging and worth it.

First: the love. Luis, Amber Young, and Barbara Phillips explore the idea that EVM can be a game — not “gaming the system,” but gamification in the positive sense. They compare project management to placing bets on outcomes: When will we finish? What will it cost? Will we be ahead or behind next month? The point isn’t perfection — it’s building a culture where teams can make forecasts, learn, and improve without fear of being wrong. From “guessing” exercises to making the work more engaging, the message is clear: EVM is rigorous, data-driven, and it can still be human.

Then: the hate. The group digs into a common frustration — when EVM becomes “just a report.” When teams treat the IPMR/IPMDAR as the end goal, the work turns into box-checking, and energy gets burned on report health and editorial “trips,” instead of using the tools to manage the program. They discuss how customer/contractor dynamics and an overly reactive environment can create a culture that feels threatened by the data rather than supported by it — including the temptation to “pull the date back” until you’re ready to reveal bad news.

And finally: the love returns. The antidote is usage and culture: look at the schedule weekly, run the critical path, use the indicators early, and let the data tell the story. Luis shares a mindset shift that helps teams breathe: call it a “VAR party,” embrace “oops and yikes,” and remember that on any real program, some control accounts will turn red — and that’s where leadership should help, not blame. They also spotlight the “certainty of uncertainty” in EVM: credible data is predictive, surprises will happen, and that’s what keeps the work meaningful.

A warm, practical episode about building healthier EVM culture — one forecast, one variance, and one “VAR party” at a time.