RE: "EV"

Hi Rachel

Thanks for your question. As we saw in the course a good starting point with Earned Value is to work with some straightforward numbers from your Project. For example:

Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) - what we agreed we'd spend to complete the project
Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) - what we agreed we'd pay for the work that's been completed
Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP) - what we really paid for the work completed.

With these figures we can do some simple analysis. For example Performance Indices can be calculated:

BCWP/ACWP = CPI or Cost Performance Index. If it's less than 1 the project is over spending

BCWP/BCWS = SPI or Schedule Performance Index. This time a result less than 1 means the project is behind schedule

The following related Microsoft article may also be of interest:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/analyze-project-performance-with-earned-value-analysis-HA101819808.aspx

Kind regards,
Andrew