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EV QUESTION

11 replies [Last post]
Oliver Melling
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Hi,

I am doing a baseline comparison on someone elses plan.

How is it possible to have and Earned Value cost that is higher than the budgeted cost for a WBS summary level?

Isn’t the EV calculated from the activity % complete multiplied by the baseline budgeted cost?
(With performance technique set to Activity % complete)

I have the baseline assigned as the project baseline in the assign baseline dialog box.(Which I believe is the baseline EV calcs work from)

Replies

Oliver Melling
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Rodel,

Thats what I thought might of happened, in the current plan some of the budgeted may have been changed.

Cheers
Rodel Marasigan
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Oliver,

Check your BL1 Total Cost or BL Project Total Cost if the same as your Budget Total Cost. If BL Total Cost is greater than Budget Total Cost then you have the answer.

Rodel
Oliver Melling
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All present and correct!
David Kelly
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Another button to check!!

In the "calculations" tab, "link budget and at completion"?
Oliver Melling
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David,

The project setting for EV calculations is on ’project basline’ and the original baseline programme is assigned to the ’project basline’. Therefore I would expect the calcs to be done using the original programme’s budget and current programme’s activity % complete?

Rodel Marasigan
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Oliver,

Now that you mention adding extra budget, I have a clear picture of your problem.

EV formula is:
Earned Value Cost = Budget at Completion * Performance % Complete.
It is not the Original Budget on your baseline. It is your current Budget in your current project but Earned Value basis of calculation is either Project Baseline or Primary Baseline.

I was confused previously on your post, and strange to have EV more than Budget.
David Kelly
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in the "settings" tab for the project, you can change the earned value from Project to Primary baseline. In the "assign baselines" tab you can chose Current Project as either.

All of the above changes the calculations.
Oliver Melling
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Rodel,

The earned value calc is set to Budget Value.

These are the settings I usually use and for interim baslines I use global change to make the planned dates = current dates.

Could it be due to extra budgeted being added in the current plan, but no changes being in the original baseline?
Rodel Marasigan
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Oliver,

Check your Admin-> Admin Preferences-> Earned Value tab. The Earned Value calculation maybe set to "At Completion Value with current date" and not to "Budget Value".

Rodel
Oliver Melling
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Rodel,

I understand that there are many ways to calculate EV and that these can be tailored to each WBS element but, my question was how can an activity or wbs element have a higher earned value cost than its total budgeted cost?

Doesn’t this mean you are earning more value than you budgeted for?and isn’t ev (BCWP) calculated from the activity % complete of the apportioned budget.
Rodel Marasigan
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Oliver,
Primavera has 2 ways of calculating EV. It depends on which setting you used in WBS summary. The first is used to calculate an activity % complete. The second is used to calculate an activity’s Estimate To Complete (ETC).

A set of options is provided for both of these techniques, and you can set these options for each WBS element.
Select Project-> WBS-> Earned Value tab