ProjectLibre Academy · Quality, Risk & Performance

Performance Management (Earned Value)

Learn Earned Value Management in ProjectLibre Cloud: PV, EV, AC, SPI, CPI and forecasting EAC, BAC and VAC from a saved baseline and status date.

Earned Value Management (EVM) gives project managers an early, comparable view of cost and schedule performance—especially across projects of different sizes—using a baseline, a status date, and progress updates.

Who it’s for: Project managers who need perspective beyond raw dollar overruns or “weeks late”—SPI and CPI normalize performance so a $50k problem on a $4M program is not confused with a $50k problem on a $50k job.

Prerequisites: Creating a New Project · Assigning Resources · Gantt Chart / Gantt Spreadsheet Configuration. Soft adjacency: Project Audit · Risk Analysis.

Watch: ProjectLibre Cloud — Earned Value Management (EVM) (~7 min).

Overview: why EVM and why a baseline

At the same status date, EVM compares three ideas:

How much work you planned to have done (budget dollars of the plan)
How much of that budgeted work you have actually finished
How much you actually spent to finish that work

EVM only means something against a Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB)—the time-phased plan of scope, schedule, and budget you agreed to measure. In ProjectLibre Cloud practice: build the schedule, assign cost-bearing resources, Save Baseline, set a Status Date (via Portfolio Edit), enter progress, then read the Earned value columns.

The three curves: PV, EV, and AC

ProjectLibre uses the spreadsheet names BCWS, BCWP, and ACWP for the standard Earned Value concepts PV, EV, and AC.

Planned Value (PV) = BCWS

Technical definition: Authorized budget assigned to scheduled work as of the status (data) date. Cumulative PV is the time-phased budget for work planned through that date.
Formula: Conceptually PV = Σ (budget for work scheduled to date). Operationally from the time-phased PMB—not a casual guess. Simple illustration only: PV ≈ (% of work planned complete) × BAC for that scope element.
What it really means: “By today, we planned to have completed this much work, valued at this many budget dollars.” It is the yardstick—not what happened and not what you spent.
Good vs bad: Good: Use PV as the plan curve; compare EV to PV for schedule accomplishment in budget terms. Bad: Treating PV as money spent or as “what we earned.”

Earned Value (EV) = BCWP

Technical definition: Work performed expressed in the budget authorized for that work. When work is completed (or partially completed per earning rules), its budgeted value is “earned.”
Formula: Conceptually EV = Σ (budget for work actually performed). Illustration: EV ≈ (% complete) × BAC only if % complete follows a valid earning technique (0/100, 50/50, weighted milestones, physical %, units complete, etc.).
What it really means: “Of the work we planned and budgeted, how much have we actually finished, priced at the original budget rates?” Progress in the same units as the plan.
Good vs bad: Good: EV is the bridge between schedule progress and cost control—variances and indices hang off EV. Bad: Equating EV with actual spend, or inventing % complete without earning rules.

Actual Cost (AC) = ACWP

Technical definition: Realized cost incurred for the work performed during a specific time period.
Formula: AC = actual cost of work performed to date (no “budget × %” formula).
What it really means: “What did we actually spend to get the work we have finished?”
Good vs bad: Good: Pair AC with EV for cost efficiency. Bad: Comparing AC to PV alone and calling that earned value—without EV you only know spending, not accomplishment.

How to read the S-curve

Plot cumulative PV, EV, and AC against time (same status dates). PV often forms an S-shape. At the status date:

Behind schedule: EV below PV → SV < 0, SPI < 1
Ahead of schedule: EV above PV → SV > 0, SPI > 1
Over budget: AC above EV → CV < 0, CPI < 1
Under budget: AC below EV → CV > 0, CPI > 1
Behind + over (classic trouble picture): EV lowest of the three; AC highest

Classic cumulative PV EV AC S-curve: behind schedule and over budget

Explanatory diagram (industry concept)—not a ProjectLibre Cloud UI screenshot. Cloud shows these ideas as spreadsheet columns, not a live EVM chart.

Variances and indices: SV, CV, SPI, CPI

Schedule Variance (SV) and Cost Variance (CV)

Technical definitions: SV = schedule performance as EV − PV. CV = budget deficit or surplus as EV − AC.
Formulas: SV = EV − PV (= BCWP − BCWS) · CV = EV − AC (= BCWP − ACWP). Also SV% = (EV − PV) / PV; CV% = (EV − AC) / EV.
What it really means: SV: Have we earned as much work as we planned by now? (Positive = ahead; negative = behind.) CV: Did the work we earned cost more or less than its budget? (Positive = under budget; negative = over budget.)
Good vs bad: Good: Read SV/CV in currency for stakeholders, then SPI/CPI for efficiency; always ask why. Bad: Assuming dollar SV equals calendar slip on the critical path. Classic EVM SV is a volume of work variance in budget dollars, not a pure time measure. Near project end, SV → 0 even if late (see pitfalls).

Schedule and cost variance bars example EV 60 PV 75 AC 80

Explanatory diagram (industry concept)—not a ProjectLibre Cloud UI screenshot.

Schedule Performance Index (SPI) and Cost Performance Index (CPI)

Technical definitions: SPI = EV / PV. CPI = EV / AC. Favorable > 1.0; unfavorable < 1.0.
Formulas: SPI = EV / PV (= BCWP / BCWS) · CPI = EV / AC (= BCWP / ACWP)
What it really means: SPI 0.80: “We’ve earned only 80 cents of planned work for every dollar of work we planned to earn by now.” CPI 0.75: “Every actual dollar spent is buying only 75 cents of budgeted progress.”
Good vs bad: Good: Indices compare across work packages of different sizes; track trends; CPI often predicts cost EAC when past performance continues. Bad: Treating SPI as “percent of calendar time remaining,” or assuming SPI > 1 guarantees an early finish.

SPI and CPI gauges example SPI 0.80 CPI 0.75

Explanatory diagram (industry concept)—not a ProjectLibre Cloud UI screenshot.

Forecasts: BAC, EAC, VAC, TCPI

Budget at Completion (BAC)

Technical definition: Sum of all budgets established for the work to be performed (performance budget for the measured scope).
Formula: BAC = Σ budgets for authorized work in the measurement baseline.
What it really means: The approved finish line for “planned” dollars of work.
Good vs bad: Good: Keep BAC tied to controlled baseline changes. Bad: Quietly changing BAC to hide variances without formal change control.

Estimate at Completion (EAC) — common variants

EAC answers: “What do we think the final cost will be?” Different formulas embed different assumptions about remaining work:

CPI continuation: EAC = BAC / CPIcum — future work continues at the same cumulative cost efficiency.
Equivalent form: EAC = AC + (BAC − EV) / CPIcum — spent so far + remaining budgeted work adjusted by CPI.
Composite (CPI × SPI): EAC = AC + (BAC − EV) / (CPIcum × SPIcum) — cost and schedule inefficiency continue to drive cost.
Recent CPI: EAC = AC + (BAC − EV) / CPIrecent — near-term efficiency predicts better than all-time CPI.
One-time variance / future at plan: EAC = AC + (BAC − EV) — past overrun was atypical; remaining work at budgeted rates.
Bottom-up: EAC = AC + bottom-up ETC — re-estimate remaining work when the plan is no longer credible.
Also by definition: EAC = ACWP + ETC. Pick the formula that matches your story about remaining work—and document the assumption.

Variance at Completion (VAC)

Technical definition: Projected budget surplus or deficit at completion.
Formula: VAC = BAC − EAC
What it really means: “If this EAC is right, we finish this much under (positive VAC) or over (negative VAC) the performance budget.”
Good vs bad: Good: Use VAC in funding / contingency conversations. Bad: Treating VAC as calendar slip.

To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)

TCPIBAC: (BAC − EV) / (BAC − AC) — finish within original BAC.
TCPIEAC: (BAC − EV) / (EAC − AC) — finish at the current EAC.
What it really means: If TCPIBAC is much higher than current CPI, finishing on BAC is unrealistic without a miracle or a re-baseline.
Good vs bad: Good: Compare TCPI to current CPI; large gaps warn that the target or forecast is not credible. Bad: Presenting an aggressive TCPI as a plan without actions that could raise efficiency.

What it means for project managers

Use professional workplace language in status meetings:

EV vs PV: “We’ve earned less work than we planned by this date.” / “We’re behind on accomplishment, not just busy.”
EV vs AC: “The work we finished cost more than it was supposed to.”
CPI 0.80: “Every dollar is buying about 80 cents of progress.”
SPI 0.90: “We’re producing about 90% of the planned value each period.”
SV negative: “We’re short on earned scope versus the baseline plan.”
CV negative: “We’re burning budget faster than we’re earning it.”
EAC > BAC: “If we keep performing like this, we’ll finish over the performance budget.”
VAC negative: “We’re looking at an overrun of X at completion under this forecast.”
TCPI ≫ CPI: “To still hit BAC, we’d need an efficiency we’ve never shown—the target isn’t realistic without a change.”
PMB: “That’s against the baseline we agreed to measure, not against last week’s hopeful replan.”
% complete vs EV: “Percent complete is a claim; earned value is that claim converted through the baseline rules.”
Spend-plan trap: “Budget versus actual only tells us we spent money—not whether we got the work.”

Percent complete vs earned value: Saying “we’re 60% done” is not the same as “we’ve earned 60% of the budgeted work.” The second requires a baseline and earning rules. DOE-style status framing: % scheduled = PV/BAC, % complete = EV/BAC, % budget spent = AC/BAC.

Common pitfalls

Confusing % complete with EV — Subjective or time-based % complete creates fantasy EV. Ask: What earning rule? What evidence?
Gaming EV — Front-loading easy milestones, claiming partial credit without criteria, booking EV for work not accepted.
EVM without a real baseline — No frozen PMB / no status date ⇒ metrics are not auditable. Informal baseline “resets” hide problems.
SPI near the end of the project — SPI tends toward 1.0 when planned work is eventually earned—even if the project finished late. Near completion, emphasize critical path, milestone dates, and forecast finish—not SPI alone.
Wrong pairs — Comparing AC to PV and calling it cost variance (cost uses EV vs AC).
Accounting lag — EV claimed this period, costs posted next period → temporary CPI distortion.
Level of Effort (LOE) dominance — LOE can earn with time and mask true product progress.

In ProjectLibre Cloud

There is no separate top-nav module named “Performance Management.” EVM is used from PORTFOLIO (project Edit / Status Date) and PROJECT → Gantt (Earned value field list / spreadsheet columns). No dedicated EVM chart screen appears in the Cloud UI for this workflow—only spreadsheet columns plus the standard Gantt timeline.

Naming map (teach both)

Planned Value (PV) → column BCWS
Earned Value (EV) → column BCWP
Actual Cost (AC) → column ACWP
Variances / indices / forecasts: SV, CV, SPI, CPI, TCPI, EAC, BAC, VAC
Status date: PORTFOLIO → Edit project → General → Dates → Status Date (not set inside the Gantt analysis view)
Baseline: Toolbar Save Baseline → Entire Project (or selected) → Save Baseline → “Saved”

Show Earned Value columns

With the project open on the Gantt, open Configuration (gear on the top toolbar above the spreadsheet).
Configuration modal tabs: Preferences | Field lists | Fields.
Preferences → General: set Component to Gantt, then change the Field List dropdown from Default to Earned value.
Close the modal — the spreadsheet shows the EVM columns.

Also available: Field lists contains the built-in list named Earned value; the Fields tab can drag fields into lists if you customize.

Columns visible when the Earned value list is applied (scroll horizontally as needed): ID, Percent Complete, Name, Duration, Actual Duration, Work, Actual Work, BCWS, BCWP, ACWP, SV, CV, EAC, BAC, SPI, TCPI, CPI, VAC.

Baseline and Status Date

Baseline: Toolbar Save Baseline icon → dialog: choose baseline, Entire Project (or selected tasks) → Save Baseline → confirmation Saved. Thin baseline bars appear under task bars on the Gantt after save. Multiple baselines (Baseline and Baseline 1–10) can be stored as visual snapshots for comparison after schedule changes. Re-baseline after moving Start if you need BCWS realigned.
Status Date: Leave the project → PORTFOLIO → hover the project row → Edit (paper/pencil) → General → Dates section → set Status Date (calendar), and Start/Finish as needed. Status date is set via portfolio Edit, not inside a Gantt analysis view. the status date makes performance referenceable.

Lab sequence

Create / open project — PORTFOLIO → add/open project (demo name EVM).
Build schedule — PROJECT → Gantt → tasks, indent for summary, set durations.
Assign cost-bearing resources — Assign Resources (demo: Connor at $100/hour, 100% units).
Save Baseline — Entire Project → Saved.
Set Start and Status Date — PORTFOLIO → Edit → General → Dates.
Show EVM columns — Configuration → Preferences → Gantt → Field List Earned value.
Re-baseline if you moved dates after the first baseline.
Enter progress — edit Percent Complete; read BCWS/BCWP/ACWP/SV/SPI and forecasts.
Optional stress test — change duration and watch BCWP, % complete, EAC, CPI, TCPI react.

ProjectLibre Cloud Assign Resources dialog with Connor assigned at 100 percent

ProjectLibre Cloud Save Baseline dialog Entire Project

ProjectLibre Cloud Portfolio Edit General Dates Status Date

ProjectLibre Cloud Configuration Field lists Earned value with BCWS BCWP

ProjectLibre Cloud Configuration Preferences Gantt Field List Earned value

What Cloud calculates and displays

BCWS (PV) from baseline + status date (time-phased planned cost to status date).
BCWP (EV) from % complete × budgeted task cost (BAC) in the demo pattern.
SV, CV, SPI, CPI, TCPI, EAC, BAC, VAC as spreadsheet columns beside the Gantt.
Summary-task roll-ups; unfavorable SV highlighted in red; baseline bars after Save Baseline.

ProjectLibre Cloud Gantt spreadsheet BCWS BCWP ACWP columns

ProjectLibre Cloud Gantt after 10 percent complete showing ACWP and negative SV

ProjectLibre Cloud Gantt columns EAC BAC SPI TCPI CPI

ProjectLibre Cloud Gantt after duration change BCWS BCWP ACWP SV CV

Charts vs columns — Cloud reports these numbers as spreadsheet columns, never as a chart.

Watch the walkthrough

Watch: ProjectLibre Cloud — Project Management Earned Value Management (EVM) (~6:57) — ProjectLibre project management software.

Covers portfolio project create, Assign Resources, Save Baseline, Status Date via Portfolio Edit, Configuration Field List Earned value, reading BCWS/BCWP/ACWP/SV/SPI, then duration change and EAC/CPI/TCPI. It does not open REPORT/DASHBOARD charts or advanced multi cost-schedule UIs—and does not show a dedicated EVM chart screen.