Within project management circles, planned value is a crucial metric that's required to calculate numerous project-related key performance indicators, or KPIs. Simply stated, planned value, or PV, is the expected baseline cost of a project. In practical terms, this then becomes the budget for the project. Thus, planned value plays a key role in determining whether a project was completed under budget or over budget. Tracking actual costs against a planned value can help project managers identify projects that are at risk of going over budget. Planned value is also known as the Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled, or BCWS.
While project costs can consist of both the cost for people performing the project work (salaries or hourly costs for consultants) and the costs of materials or physical assets, this recipe provides a calculation for the planned value...
