Clauses · DFARS · Pricing and audit
DFARS 252.234-7002 Earned Value Management System
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
Yes
Paragraph (k) Subcontracts: 'With the exception of paragraphs (i) and (j) of this clause, the Contractor shall require its subcontractors to comply with EVMS requirements as follows: (1) For subcontracts valued at $50 million or more, the following subcontractors shall comply with the requirements of this clause: [Contracting Officer to insert names of subcontractors (or subcontracted effort if subcontractors have not been selected) designated for application of the EVMS requirements of this clause.] (2) For subcontracts valued at less than $50 million, the following subcontractors shall comply with the requirements of this clause, excluding the requirements of paragraph (c) of this clause: [same insertion].' The mandate is real, but it is conditioned on a Government designation that most subcontracts never receive.
- Form
- substance — the Contractor shall require the DESIGNATED subcontractors to comply with the clause, excepting paragraphs (i) material weaknesses and (j) withholding payments, which stay between the Government and the prime; for designated subs under $50 million, paragraph (c) drops out as well
- Reaches
- only the subcontractors the Contracting Officer names in the blanks at (k)(1) and (k)(2) — not 'all tiers', not 'first tier'
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition JAN 2025 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
3 items for your checklist, slowest first.
A program you have to be running
You are either running it or you are not, and what the prime asks for is the date it started.
An earned value management system meeting the thirty-two ANSI/EIA-748 guidelines, producing timely, reliable and verifiable data for the contract performance report and the integrated master schedule
DFARS 252.234-7002(b)
Something somebody else has to issue you
The same day if the issuer is one of your own suppliers, months if it is an assessor or an underwriter.
- DFARS 252.234-7002(c)
A cognizant Federal agency determination that the system complies
Owed at $50 million or more — paragraph (d) covers a designated subcontract below that figure, where a compliant system is needed but no formal determination is
Something you write
Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.
Written notice to the cognizant Federal agency of a proposed substantive change to the system, with approval before implementation at $50 million or more
DFARS 252.234-7002(e)
When it is used
DFARS 234.203(2): use 252.234-7002 in lieu of FAR 52.234-4 for cost or incentive contracts of $20 million or more, and for other contracts to which EVM is applied. DFARS 234.201: at $20 million or more (cost or incentive) the system must comply with the ANSI/EIA-748 guidelines; at $50 million or more the system must additionally have been determined compliant by the cognizant Federal agency (paragraph (c) of the clause); below $20 million application is a documented, risk-based decision; on firm-fixed-price contracts of any value, application is DISCOURAGED. Then the gate that decides everything for a subcontractor is paragraph (k): the clause reaches a sub only if the Contracting Officer inserted that sub's name — or the subcontracted effort — into the blanks at (k)(1) or (k)(2) of the prime contract.
Read closely
Paragraph (k) is the only route by which a subcontractor is reached: the contracting officer writes names into its two blanks, and the question to put to the prime in writing is whether your company or your scope is one of them. Paragraphs (i), material weaknesses — including the 30-day written response at (i)(2) and the corrective action at (i)(4) — and (j), withholding, run between a contracting officer and the company holding the Government contract, so none of that machinery puts paper in a subcontractor's hands. The integrated baseline review at paragraph (f) is scheduled by the Government, within 180 calendar days of award, of a significant option, or of a major modification.
The 3 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, DFARS 252.234-7002, DFARS 234.201, DFARS 234.203(2) and DFARS 212.301 (verified 2026-08-05); DoD Class Deviation 2015-O0017 (memo dated 2015-09-28, EVMS thresholds $50M to $100M) identified from search and not verifiable against acquisition.gov (unconfirmed)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.