Earned value formulas

Hi Paula

Thanks for your question. A starting point for Earned Value would be to look at some simple calculations:

Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) - our budget (or baseline)
Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) - the agreed resource rate applied to work carried out
Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP) - what we really paid for the work carried out.

Once we have these figures we can do some simple analysis. For example :

Performance Index:
BCWP/ACWP = CPI or Cost Performance Index. Less than 1 the project is over spending

BCWP/BCWS = SPI or Schedule Performance Index. Less than 1 means the project is behind schedule.

These calculations offer a starting point. I hope this helps - do let us know if you have any further questions.