Where EarnedCurve fits — and where it doesn’t
Most teams measuring rules-of-credit progress today are doing it in one of three places: a spreadsheet, the percentage field in P6, or a full EVM suite bolted onto the ERP. Each works until it doesn’t, and each fails in a different way. Here is the honest version of all four, including ours.
| EarnedCurve | Spreadsheet + monthly meeting | The % field in P6 | Full EVM suite on the ERP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where the percentage comes from | Derived from weighted steps — never typed | Whoever owns the file | Typed by the planner from a verbal update | Configured measurement methods, if they were set up |
| Can you trace a number back to evidence? | Always — item, step, and source document | Only if someone kept the working | No | Sometimes, through the CA structure |
| Level 4 detail | Native — thousands of items per project | Yes, until the file gets too big | None — L3 is the floor | Yes, at implementation cost |
| Bridge to the L3 programme | Step-band map, derived automatically | Manual, monthly, arguable | N/A — it is the L3 | Via integration, if scoped |
| Is last month immutable? | Yes — snapshots; open period writes only | Only by discipline | No — overwritten each update | Usually yes |
| Scope change separated from performance | Computed on every period report | Rarely | No | If the change control is followed |
| Automation guardrails | Proposes only; regressions never auto-applied | N/A | N/A | Varies |
| Where the data sits | Your browser — never uploaded | On someone’s laptop, emailed around | The P6 database | Vendor cloud |
| Time to a first real number | An afternoon — import, map, claim | A week of template building | Minutes, and worth what it cost | Months |
| What you pay for | Project size — free under 2,000 hours | Nothing, then everything in a dispute | P6 seats | Seats, modules, and implementation |
What EarnedCurve deliberately does not do
A tool that claims to do everything is a tool that has not decided what it is. These are not gaps on a roadmap — they are boundaries, and the product is better for having them.
Three sister products, one discipline
EarnedCurve is one of four Vantis Project Intelligence tools. They share a philosophy — browser-based, no install, transparent maths, your data stays yours — and each does one job properly rather than four badly.
ScheduleInsight
Score any Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project schedule against the DCMA 14-point assessment plus four more, drill into the activities failing each check, compare revisions forensically, and produce a client-ready report. Where EarnedCurve asks “is this progress real?”, ScheduleInsight asks “is this programme sound?”
scheduleinsight.com →RunMonteCarlo
Probabilistic schedule and cost risk analysis in the browser — thousands of simulated runs, confidence-banded completion dates, and the activities actually driving the spread. The natural next question once your baseline and your progress are both defensible.
runmontecarlo.com →Sketchdule
Build and communicate a programme without a full P6 licence — fast schedule sketching, XER import and export, and presentation-grade output for the times a bid or a board pack needs a schedule before the planner does.
sketchdule.com →