Earned Value Management (EVM) Metrics

Earned Value Management compares three numbers, all expressed in the same cost unit, to answer one question honestly: is this program on budget and on schedule, and if not, by how much?

Planned Value (PV)  — what should have been spent by now
Earned Value  (EV)  — what the completed work is actually worth, at budget
Actual Cost   (AC)  — what was actually spent

Every other EVM metric — CPI, SPI, EAC, VAC, TCPI — is derived from these three.

The Three Base Measures

PV (Planned Value) =
SUMX(Tasks, Tasks[BAC] * Tasks[PlannedPercentComplete])

EV (Earned Value) =
SUMX(Tasks, Tasks[BAC] * Tasks[PercentComplete])

AC (Actual Cost) =
SUM(Tasks[ActualCost])

BAC (Budget at Completion) is each task's total planned cost. This version assumes PlannedPercentComplete is already known per task as of the current reporting date — the simplest, most common setup for a periodic status report. When PV needs to be computed live from each task's own baseline schedule (so a chart can show the planned curve continuously over time, not just as of today), a disconnected date table is the standard technique — see Build an EVM Dashboard for that full walkthrough.

CPI and SPI: The Two Headline Ratios

CPI (Cost Performance Index) =
DIVIDE([EV (Earned Value)], [AC (Actual Cost)])

SPI (Schedule Performance Index) =
DIVIDE([EV (Earned Value)], [PV (Planned Value)])

CPI < 1  -> over budget for the work performed
CPI = 1  -> exactly on budget
CPI > 1  -> under budget for the work performed

SPI < 1  -> behind schedule
SPI = 1  -> exactly on schedule
SPI > 1  -> ahead of schedule

Both are ratios, so 1.0 is always the neutral point — above is good, below is a problem.

CV and SV: The Variance Form

CV (Cost Variance) =
[EV (Earned Value)] - [AC (Actual Cost)]

SV (Schedule Variance) =
[EV (Earned Value)] - [PV (Planned Value)]

The same comparison, expressed as a dollar amount instead of a ratio — useful for a KPI card showing "$42K over budget" rather than a bare index number. Here 0 is neutral: positive is good, negative is a problem — the opposite-feeling direction from a ratio, where the neutral point is 1, not 0. Moving between the two forms is the easiest place to misread a program's status, covered below.

EAC, ETC, VAC, and TCPI: Forecasting to Completion

BAC (Budget at Completion) =
SUM(Tasks[BAC])

EAC (Estimate at Completion) =
DIVIDE([BAC (Budget at Completion)], [CPI (Cost Performance Index)])

ETC (Estimate to Complete) =
[EAC (Estimate at Completion)] - [AC (Actual Cost)]

VAC (Variance at Completion) =
[BAC (Budget at Completion)] - [EAC (Estimate at Completion)]

TCPI (To-Complete Performance Index) =
DIVIDE(
    [BAC (Budget at Completion)] - [EV (Earned Value)],
    [BAC (Budget at Completion)] - [AC (Actual Cost)]
)

TCPI answers a different question from the others: given what's actually been spent, how efficiently does the remaining work need to be performed to still hit the original BAC? A TCPI well above 1 signals the original budget is no longer realistic, even before EAC makes that explicit.

EAC Has More Than One Standard Formula

EAC = BAC / CPI (shown above) is the simplest of several standard EAC formulas, and it makes a specific assumption: that the cost efficiency observed so far continues unchanged for the remaining work.

EAC = AC + (BAC - EV)                    -- assumes the variance so far was atypical, won't recur
EAC = BAC / CPI                          -- assumes current cost performance continues as-is
EAC = AC + (BAC - EV) / (CPI * SPI)      -- assumes both cost AND schedule performance affect the remaining work

Which formula fits depends on why the program is over or under — a one-time cost overrun on a single task points toward the first; a systemic efficiency problem likely to persist points toward the second or third.

Common Mistakes

Mixing Up the Ratio and Variance Sign Conventions

CPI/SPI are ratios where 1.0 is neutral and higher is better; CV/SV are dollar variances where 0 is neutral and higher is better. A dashboard mixing both forms without clear labeling makes it easy to misread "0.90" as a small, tolerable number when it actually means the program is running 10% over budget for the work performed.

Computing EV as a Single Program-Wide Percentage

EV needs to be earned per task (or per work package) and then summed — Tasks[BAC] * Tasks[PercentComplete], aggregated with SUMX. Multiplying the total BAC by one blended, program-wide percent-complete produces a materially different (and usually more optimistic) number than summing each task's own earned value.

Treating a Single EAC Formula as Definitive

EAC = BAC / CPI is a starting point for a conversation, not a certainty — see the formula variants above. Reporting it without stating which assumption it makes can overstate how precise the forecast actually is.

Confusing SPI With Percent of the Calendar Elapsed

SPI measures work completed against work planned, not time elapsed against total duration. A program can be exactly on schedule by the calendar and still show a poor SPI if the wrong tasks were prioritized first.

Best Practices

• Compute PV, EV, and AC as their own base measures first, then build every ratio and variance from those three — never recompute the underlying aggregation inside each derived measure.
• Use DIVIDE(), never the raw / operator — AC and PV can both legitimately be 0 early in a program, before any cost has been incurred or any task has reached its planned start.
• Label ratio-form and variance-form metrics clearly and separately; don't rely on a viewer to remember which form a given card is showing.
• Pick one EAC formula deliberately, based on whether the observed variance looks likely to persist, and document that choice next to the measure.

EVM Metrics Checklist

Before publishing an EVM dashboard:

• PV, EV, and AC are each computed per task and summed with SUMX, not derived from one blended program-wide percentage.
• Every ratio and variance measure uses DIVIDE(), not /.
• CPI/SPI (ratio) and CV/SV (variance) are labeled clearly enough that their opposite neutral points (1.0 vs. 0) can't be confused.
• The EAC formula in use is a deliberate choice, not just whichever one was easiest to write first.

Next Steps

• Build an Earned Value Management (EVM) Dashboard in Power BI — a full walkthrough with a real task-list dataset and a disconnected date table for time-phased PV
• Risk Score & Heat Map
• Coverage & Verification
• Reliability Metrics (MTBF, MTTR & Availability)
• Totals
• Percent of Total
• DIVIDE()
• CALCULATE