Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Earned Value Analysis

Earned value analysis is like the idea behind that old Smith Barney slogan, “We make money the old fashioned way—we earn it.” Earned value analysis measures progress according to how much of your project’s value (its cost) you’ve earned so far by completing work.

Project customers, sponsors, and stakeholders want to know how far along a project is. Earned value alone tells you only how much of the project’s cost you’ve earned—it doesn’t say anything about the schedule. Other earned value measures provide a picture of schedule status. If a project has spent half its budget, consumed half its forecast duration, and completed half of its work, you’re all set. However, if the budget and duration are half spent, but the work is only 25 percent complete, something is wrong. You have only 50 percent of the budget and duration left to complete 75 percent of the work.

This section explains how to use various earned-value measures to keep tabs on your project.

Note

Earned value analysis requires a baseline in your Project file, so you have a plan to compare to. If you haven’t set a baseline yet (Preserving the Original Plan in Project), all the earned value fields are zero. You also have to set a status date and enter actual values as of that date (see Chapter 13) to show what you’ve accomplished and how much it cost.

Gauging Performance with Earned Value Measures

Earned value analysis uses several calculations to measure schedule and cost status. However, all earned value ...