Earned value management is a project management technique that allows you to control the execution of a project through its budget and execution schedule.

Compares the amount of work already completed at a given time with the estimate made before the project began. In this way, there is a measure of how much work has been done, how much remains to complete the project, and extrapolating from the effort invested in the project, the project manager can estimate the resources that will be used to complete the project. With this methodology, it is possible to estimate how long the project would take to complete if the conditions under which the schedule was prepared are maintained or considering if the conditions that were presented during the development of the project are maintained. You can also estimate the total cost of the project.

As a previous step, the project leader must know or have prepared the following:

Next we will analyze a practical example of a project that consists of 4 tasks. The approved budget to start the project is shown below:.

Budget.

Note: Values ​​in monetary units.

In addition, the project management team determines a progress control, which after the third week of starting the project has the following results:

Advance control.

With this input data we can calculate the earned value as the product of the percentage of progress and the budgeted cost per task, remember that the concept of earned value is "the budgeted cost of the work actually executed." It is not necessary for this calculation to know the actual cost.

Earned value.

Note: Values ​​in monetary units.

The control of the actual costs incurred in the project determines the following table:.

Real Cost.

Note: Values ​​in monetary units.

In summary we have the following table with the accumulated values:

Note: Values ​​in monetary units.

With this table we can determine very useful indices to determine the degree to which our project is delayed or out of position.