Summary and figures. Over the past half century, EV value engineering has become an effective tool for managing time, cost, and quality with the goal of maximizing value. This has been shown to be the case. Apparently an insoluble task. Often the summary is all that is read these days. The detailed documents are left to the odd dedicated person who slogs through them in search of a more detailed understanding. Here are some tips for completing this task: Identify what you want to achieve with the summary. Value engineering is normally undertaken in a facilitated workshop environment, generally covering five stages as follows: Information gathering. Speculation or brainstorming. Assessment. Development. Presentation. Subject to the complexity of the project, workshops can vary from a one-hour workshop over five days to a one-day workshop. An executive summary is a brief report highlighting the important elements of a project. Managers reading the summary should get the gist of the project's status without needing to go into great detail. Include the impact of this particular project on the organization as a whole, if this is not already known. Being concise is key.