An old management tool in a new guise provides managers with an "early warning" signal of impending cost problems. The authors, both businessmen, trace the technique of earned value cost management from its formal introduction as part of PERT/Cost through its most prominent application within the Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria (C/SCSC) over the past 25 years. They discuss both positive and negative aspects of earned value and argue for a more user- friendly approach that avoids mind-boggling terminology. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.