Spent is not the same as earned.
Earned value management that shows, every period, if the progress you are paying for is the progress you are getting. SPI, CPI and EAC in plain English, set up along EIA-748 lines and scaled to the size of your project.
What slips through.
Sixty percent spent, forty-five done
When cost and schedule are reported by different people on different days, nobody sees the gap until it is too wide to close.
Percent complete by feel
Progress claimed by opinion climbs fast and stalls at ninety percent for months. Measured rules of credit keep the number honest.
An EAC that never moves
The estimate at completion sits at budget until the month it cannot. Owners deserve the trend while there is still time to act on it.
How we set up earned value.
- 01
One structure for cost and time
Budget and schedule are built on the same WBS and control accounts, so every dollar has a place in time and every activity has a value.
- 02
Rules of credit, agreed up front
Milestones, units installed or weighted steps, written down before work starts. Progress becomes something you count, not something you argue about.
- 03
A disciplined monthly cycle
Planned value, earned value and actual cost every period, with SPI, CPI and earned schedule calculated the same way each month.
- 04
Forecasts built from performance
EAC and forecast finish come from actual productivity and remaining risk, not from the original budget with a hopeful note attached.
- 05
Variances with names on them
Each variance over threshold gets a cause, an owner and a corrective action, tracked until it closes.
What you get.
Scoped to your project and delivered in native files your team owns.
WBS, control accounts, cost codes, rules of credit, thresholds and reporting calendar, agreed with your team and your contractors.
PV, EV, AC, SPI and CPI by control account, with each variance explained in a sentence, not a page.
An estimate at completion with the range behind it, reconciled monthly to the change log and contingency.
Every significant variance with cause, owner, action and status, carried until closed.
Cost, schedule and contingency trends an executive can read in one minute, refreshed every period.
The schedule said fine. CPI said otherwise.
A common pattern on fast industrial and data center work: milestones are holding, yet the cost performance index has slid for three straight periods. Earned value shows the crews are buying the dates with overtime and rework. Found in month four, it is a staffing conversation. Found in month fourteen, it is a budget crisis.
- SPI
- Schedule efficiency
- CPI
- Cost efficiency
- EAC
- Monthly, with a range
See it in the work.
Confidential projects where these controls apply, and a live instrument you can run on the shared Controls Lab schedule.
Questions owners ask us.
Is earned value only for government work?
No. It started there, but any owner who wants to know whether progress matches spending can use it. We scale it to the project.
Our contractors do not report earned value. Can we still use it?
Yes. We can build it from schedule progress and pay applications, then tighten the reporting requirements in your next contracts.
What is a good SPI or CPI?
Near 1.0 means on plan. Below 1.0 means behind schedule or over cost. The trend over three or four periods matters more than any single month.
Can I test my own numbers?
Yes. Earned Value Pulse in our Controls Lab calculates SPI, CPI, earned schedule and EAC from figures you type in.
Related services
Find out what you have actually earned.
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