How to Calculate EVA with MS-Project (Part 1)
Dr. Andrew Makar is an IT program manager and is the author of the Microsoft Project Made Easy series. For more project management advice, visit the website TacticalProjectManagement.com.
You've just returned from your Friday afternoon lunch and started to check last night's sports scores when boss stops by your desk. You deftly hit Alt-Tab keys to switch to an open Excel spreadsheet as your boss starts talking about his latest training class. He just returned from a project cost control seminar and wants you to apply earned value analysis to your project. He wants to see your current SPI and CPI calculations on your next status report.
You remember reading about earned value in the PMBOK book that sits high on your office bookshelf, but have no idea on how to get started. You know your budget and actual costs to date, but calculating earned value remains an enigma. Don't worry. By following this article, you'll be calculating earned value, SPI, CPI and other earned value metrics with a few mouse clicks and some third grade math. If you need a refresher on Earned Value Analysis, please review the "Who's Afraid of EVA?" article. You can also follow along with the example by viewing the EVA Example.mpp project plan.
In order to apply earned value to your project plan, you will need to complete the following six tasks:
-
Enter Resources with hourly bill rates in the Resource Sheet view
-
Assign resources to tasks in the Gantt Entry view
-
Save the Project Baseline
-
Record Actual Start/Finish and …
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
|
"We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore." - Mark Twain |
