Planned Value Calculator

Planned Value (PV), also called Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS), is the budgeted value of the work that should have been completed by a given date according to the baseline schedule. It is the yardstick for schedule performance in earned value management: comparing PV with Earned Value shows whether the project is ahead or behind.

How to use the calculator

1. Enter the Budget at Completion (BAC) of the activity or project.
2. Enter the planned percent complete at the status date from the baseline schedule, or the planned start, finish and status dates for a linear spread.
3. Read the Planned Value, and optionally compare it with EV.

Formulas

• PV = BAC × planned % complete at status date
• For a linear plan: planned % = elapsed planned duration / total planned duration
• SV = EV - PV and SPI = EV / PV

Worked example

A road subbase package has a BAC of 1,200,000, planned to run evenly over 12 weeks. At the end of week 5, planned progress is 5 / 12 = 41.7%, so PV = 500,000. If the measured EV is 420,000, SV = -80,000 and SPI = 0.84: the work is about 16% behind schedule.

Building PV properly

• PV comes from the baseline, not the current schedule. Re-baselining changes PV and must be controlled.
• Cost-loaded schedules in P6 produce a PV curve automatically from resource assignments.
• Many activities are not linear: earthworks and finishes often follow an S-curve, slow at the start and end.
• The cumulative PV over time forms the familiar S-curve used in progress reports.