MS Project – Earned Value Calculation options 

Earned Value Calculation options

I have already covered using the Earned Value table in my Step By Step Workbook, but here I want to introduce the options for its use and how to tell Project what criteria to use for its earned value calculations.

If you are bit rusty on earned value, refer to my Learn Earned Value In 10 Minutes Flat video on YouTube

To tell Project how you want EV calculated, select File, Options, Advanced and you will see that there are TWO options:

• Percentage Complete
• Physical Percentage Complete

Earned Value – Percentage Complete

As you might expect, this setting calculates earned value using the percentage complete value that you record on each task. This assumes that a task that is 50 percent complete, has used half of the work hours.

Earned Value Physical Percentage Complete

This does NOT use a calculation based upon the percentage complete calculation. You may remember the Work Contour feature in Project, where the work profile across a task may not be linearly spread.
You can display the Physical % Complete field, by adding that to any table you have applied and use it as a means to enter in a suitable earned value amount.

An example here, is the ‘Request Bids’ task, for the first few days very little work is done until all the bids are in, and it is not until the last few days of the task that the bids are received and collated. In this case there is a ‘late peak’ of work: To either manually or automatically enter an expect profile across the task assignments, you could select the Resource Usage view, double-click on a task name and the Assignment Information dialog box opens. Select the General tab, and then choose the most suitable contour on the Work contour pull down list.

Baseline for Earned Value calculation.

Earned Value calculations are performed against the baseline you have selected, so ensure that you have the correct one from the 11 possible baselines!

Edits to total task % complete will be spread to the status date. This affects how Project distributes changes in the schedule, and I would recommend that you keep it deselected. Here are the checked and unchecked options:

Unchecked (default setting). Calculations go to the end of the duration of any tasks that are currently in progress, rather than calculating up to the status date or the current date.

Checked. Calculations spread changes across your plan up to the status date or current date but no further. This selection allows you to see changes to your project in terms of time increments, rather than across the duration of tasks in progress.

Earned Value and the status date

The status date is the same as the current date, unless you specify a different status date. The status date can be used to calculate where to place actual and remaining work in the schedule when you are entering progress information.

To set the status date, select the Project tab, Status group, Status Date.

Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS)

This relates to the portion of cost that is planned to be spent on a particular task between the task’s start date and the status date. Suppose a task starting on a Monday is planned to cost £100.00 If the Status Date is set to Wednesday, the BCWS = £75.00

Other Advanced Options settings

Select File, Options, Advanced tab and scroll down to the following features:

Move end of completed parts after status date back to status date. If this check box is selected, then if a task is selected that starts at some point after the status date, and actuals are entered into it. Project moves the actual, completed portion of the task so that the completed work ends on the status date, and the remaining work is scheduled to begin in the future. For example, if the status date is set today, and you enter some actuals, the work is assumed to finish today and not in the future, but the remaining work is not expected to start until the future.
The task is split

If Move start of remaining parts before status date forward to status date and the And move start of remaining parts back to status date are BOTH checked.

With both check boxes selected, Project moves the entire task around the status date, indicating that both work was done on the task and completed as of the status date, and that any remaining work is continuing as of the status date:

Tasks scheduled BEFORE the status date AND already have actuals entered.

Move end of completed parts after status date back to status date. If this check box is selected, and a task is scheduled BEFORE the status date and you enter details against it, Project leaves the actual portion of the task as scheduled. But it moves any remaining work to the status date. So if the status date is set to today, Monday, and you enter actual work details, the work is assumed to have been completed when the task was scheduled, and Project assumes that remaining work will begin immediately instead of in the past (before the status date):

If Move start of remaining parts before status date forward to status date and the And move start of remaining parts back to status date are BOTH checked.

Project moves the entire task around the status date to show that work was done on the task and completed as of the status date, and that any remaining work is continuing as of the status date