This article will familiarize you with the overview and deployment of Earned Value Analytics.

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Overview

Earned value analysis is a method for measuring project performance by evaluating the status of your project costs and schedule.

Earned Value Analysis indicates the budget estimates, in view of the amount of work done so far and the baseline cost for the tasks/assignments. Earned value measurements help in comparison of the projected progress with the actual progress for a project on a certain date.

At the root of earned value analysis are the following key values:

1. Baseline Cost/Budget at Completion (BAC):

Baseline Cost or Budget at Completion refers to the total cost of the project as estimated and Baselined at the beginning of the project. This is computed for each individual base-lined project task using the following formula and summed up to show the planned value for the project:

Budget at Completion (BAC) = Sum of {(Baseline Effort * Resource Cost / Hr)} for each project task

Where,

Baseline Effort:  Baseline Effort of task/assignment

Resource Cost /Hr) – The Cost/hour of the resource allocated to the task

2. Planned Value (PV):

Planned Value refers to the planned or estimated costs for particular project activities during a certain period of time. The estimates are baselined at the beginning of the project and are used to compare the actual cost. PV is also known as the budgeted cost for the work scheduled (BCWS). This is computed for each individual base-lined project task using the following formulae and then summed up to show the planned value for the project:

Planned Value (PV): {(BAC {(ED-SD)/ (EED-SD)}

Where,

BAC = Baseline Cost or Budgeted At Completion as explained in #1.

Resource Cost /Hr) – The Cost / hour of the resource allocated to the task

ED = Baseline End Date for the task or current date, whichever is lesser

EED = Baseline End Date

SD = Baseline Start Date

3. Earned Value (EV):

EV refers to the budgeted cost of work actually completed on the scheduled activity or task during a given time. EV provides a measure of the project’s progress on a certain date. This is also referred to as the budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP). This is computed for each individual base-lined project task using the following formula and summed up to show the planned value for the project:

Earned Value (EV): Baseline Cost (BAC)*(% Work Complete)

Where,

Baseline Cost = Baseline Cost or Budgeted At Completion as explained in #1.

% Work Complete = A percentage value that indicates the current status of a task/assignment, expressed as the percentage of work that has been completed. This gets computed based on the time logged against the task and work remaining.

4. Actual Cost:

Actual Cost (AC) is the total cost incurred in accomplishing work on the scheduled activity/task during a given period of time. This is also referred to as the actual cost of work performed (ACWP). This is computed for each individual project task and workflow item using the following formulae and then summed up to show the planned value for the project: –

Actual Cost (AC) –  (Actual timesheet effort)* Resource Cost

Where,

Actual Timesheet Effort: – Approved timesheet effort as logged by the resource against a task/non-task (workflow) items in the Nimble timesheet module, till the reporting date.

Resource Cost /Hr) – The Cost/hour of the resource allocated to the task.

5. Estimate at Completion (EAC):

Estimate at completion or EAC is the projected or anticipated total value for the scheduled project activities when the defined work of the project is completed based on the current project performance. It is the forecast of the most likely total value based on the current rate of project performance. This is computed for each individual base-lined project task using the following formulae and then summed up to show the planned value for the project: –

• For Nimble projects using timesheet tracking by ’Remaining Hours’

  Estimate at Completion: – Actual Cost (AC) + (Remaining Work* Resource Cost)

• For Nimble projects using timesheet tracking by % Completion: –

Estimate at Completion: – Actual Cost (AC) + {(Baseline Cost (BAC)-Planned Value (PV))/CPI}

Where,

Actual Cost (AC): – Actual cost of work performed thus far, as computed in #4 above.

Remaining Work: – Remaining effort for the task, as entered by the assigned resource in the timesheet.

Resource Cost /Hr: The Cost / hour of the resource allocated to the task

Baseline Cost: – Baseline or Budgeted Cost at Completion as explained in #1.

Planned Value (PV): Planned value of the scheduled tasks as explained in #2.

Note: For Metrics based on Price, the Billing Rate of the resource at project level is considered for computation of the metric value.

Deployment

This metric is available at Project Analytics. The data for this metric is computed on a nightly scheduler basis.

Note:

1. EVA (Cost) component considers the Cost/hr defined for the resources assigned on the task for all metric computation. The Cost/hr for a resource is unique across all projects, for a particular period and is entered in the user profile Cost and Primary Project Role.

2. The values of BAC, PV and EV are computed only for Baselined tasks. The Planned Effort entered in the workflow stages of Form items are not considered for this calculation.

3. The value of AC (Actual Cost) includes timesheet effort logged against any Form item.  In an ideal scenario, the effort should be either logged against tasks or eForm items. Logging time against both the items should be avoided.

4. Overtime Cost/Per Use Costs of resources are not considered for computation of any metric.

5. Once the task is Baselined, the value of BAC, EV, and PV is not changed unless the task/project plan is Baselined again. However, the ‘Actual Cost (AC)’ would consider the recently changed cost/price information and recompute the actual cost.

6. The metric gets updated the next day and not immediately.