P6 16.1: Planned Value Cost Activity Table =/= Cum PVC Activity Usage Spreadsheet

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Someone recently came across this post and asked on LinkedIn if I ever found the solution so i'm reposting here:

Hi Chandana,

Yes I managed to find the solution in my case.

The reason for the difference was because of an unexpected Budgeted Total Cost distribution over time in the Activity Usage Spreadsheet, hence resulting in different Planned Value Cost values for Activity Cost and Activity Usage Spreadsheet, for the same Data Date.

In my case, some of the activities, for example, had 5d original duration. So we would expect the Budgeted Total Cost for that activity to be spread out over 5d in the absence of any resource curves. However, I found out the the Budgeted Total Cost was in fact entirely front-loaded to the very first day of the activity.

The reason for it was because of the equation Duration * Budgeted Units / Time = Budgeted Units.

Somehow, when I imported my subcontractor schedule into my P6, some of their resource Budgeted Units or Budgeted Units / Time was reset to zero, or it was zero in the first place.

Based on the equation above, if Budgeted Units or Budgeted Units / Time is zero, we end up with zero duration.

So, Duration * 0 = Budgeted Units ; Duration = Infinity ~ 0

or

Duration * Budgeted Units / Time = 0 ; Duration = 0

BUT because we are using Duration Type = Fixed Duration and Units / Time, the above equation is ignored and the Original Duration will not change despite the zero values. 

However, for some reason the above is true only for Activity Table. In Activity Usage Spreadsheet, the Duration Type does not seem to override.

So, because the Duration of the activity is calculated to be zero in the Activity Usage Spreadsheet, P6 does the next best thing and places the entire Activity Budgeted Total Cost on the first day.

So that's why the Schedule % Complete / Planned Value Cost values are different at the same Data Date between the Activity Table and Activity Usage Spreadsheet.

Hope that helps,

Bian

Hi Zoltan,

Under Admin Preferences>Earned value calculation>When calculating earned value from a baseline use:

• At Completion values with current dates
• Budgeted values with current dates
• Budgeted values with planned dates <--- I am using this option for both SQLite and SQL

Thanks,

BT