Introduction to project management/IPM103/Budget/More about Earned Value and Planned Value

When we're thinking about Earned Value in project management, we're really looking at the amount of work that has been completed, and asking ourselves whether that's what we expected in terms of progress, in the expected period of time, and for the expected spend. In other words, how much money should have been spent, over how much time, for the amount of work done to date.

This may differ from the Planned Value for a project, if the project is ahead of (or behind) time, or if more (or less) money has been spent than anticipated. Planned Value, sometimes called the Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled, estimates the cost of each activity in the project, and maps it against time. In this way, the Project Manager can plan for how much money is needed at key points in the project, as well as planning for human resources, equipment, and so on.