You are 4 months into a 6 month project. Our crack project team of highly skilled associates has worked diligently and put in extra hours to keep the project going. Our accounting department has provided the following data at the end of month 4:
Actual cost = $88,800
Planed expenditures = $101,000
The CFO is excited and has sent you an email congratulating you for being 12.7% under budget. Is it time to hold a team celebration? That would be fun but your project manager mentality kicks in. Those numbers look good but how are we really doing? To know we need to apply earned value techniques to find out.
We need to know what we have actually accomplished. You meet with your team and find that only 6 of the 7 tasks scheduled to be complete by the end of month 4 have actually been done. This information gives you the information you need for an objective analysis.
1. What are the PV, EV, and AC for the project at the end of month 4?
2. What are the SV, CV, SPI, and CPI for the project?
3. Assess the project performance to date? Do you get to have the celebration?