Percent-complete alone can be misleading — a project can look “60% done” on paper while actually consuming resources at a rate that means it will finish late and over budget. This applies just as much to an asset maintenance shutdown or offshore campaign as it does to a mining infrastructure build or commercial development. EVM catches that gap early by measuring earned value (the value of work actually completed) against planned value and actual cost, giving genuinely objective, forward-looking performance data rather than a gut-feel status.