EV Formulas

[bauer172uw]

I am looking to find the EXACT formulas that MS Project uses to calculate a
few EV fields. I have made several posts asking for these but so far no one
has been able to give a formula. The fields I am look for are:

1. BCWS
2. BCWP
3. ACWP
4. Physical % Complete - At the summary task level! I am aware that at the
TASK level this is a user defined field, but at the summary level it is out
of my control and is calculated for me.

I am much appreciative of anyone who can supply these formulas. Please
note: our organization uses Physical % Complete for all of our EV
calculations. Also, our resources report progress via PWA (except sometimes
managers will just enter 100% complete for certain tasks). Also, we are
aware of how to set baselines, status dates, and the usual overhead for
taking EV numbers.

Thank You for any help!

Mike

 

[JackD]

Open the project help and look for earned value.

Here are a couple of brief exerpts:

Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS)
The earned value field that indicates how much of the budget should have
been spent, in view of the baseline cost of the task, assignment, or
resource. BCWS is calculated as the cumulative timephased baseline costs up
to the status date or today's date.

ACWP (task field)
See also
Data Type Currency
Entry Type Calculated
Description The ACWP (actual cost of work performed) field shows costs
incurred for work already done on a task, up to the project status date or
today's date.
How Calculated When a task is first created, the ACWP field contains $0.
As progress (percentage of completion or actual work) is reported on the
task, Microsoft Project calculates the actual cost of work performed (ACWP).
This is the cost of actual work plus any fixed costs for the task to date.
By default, how and when ACWP is calculated depend on the assigned
resources' Standard Rate, Overtime Rate, Per Use Cost, and Cost accrual
settings in the Resource Information dialog box, as well as the actual work
reported, fixed costs for tasks, and the status date or today's date.
Microsoft Project can calculate ACWP even if you do not have resources
assigned. In this case, the calculations are based on progress (percentage
of completion or actual work) and fixed costs to date for the task. If you
prefer, you can have ACWP calculated based on your entries in the Actual
Cost (timephased) field. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click
the Calculation tab. Clear the Actual costs are always calculated by
Microsoft Project check box.

 

[Java Hound]

We don't use these fields for real earned value but here are the calculations:

BCWP: When a task is first created, the BCWP is $0.00. As soon as a
baseline is saved and progress is reported for the task (as actual work,
actual duration, or percentage of work complete), Microsoft Project
calculates BCWP. This calculation is based on the percentage of work
complete, as compared with the task's baseline duration. Microsoft Project
then calculates the cumulative baseline cost and provides the value of what
the task's actual costs should be, given the task's progress to that point in
the task's baseline duration.

BCWS: To calculate BCWS for a task, Microsoft Project adds the timephased
baseline costs of the task up to the status date.

ACWP: When a task is first created, the ACWP field contains $0. As
progress (percentage of completion or actual work) is reported on the task,
Microsoft Project calculates the actual cost of work performed (ACWP). This
is the cost of actual work plus any fixed costs for the task to date. By
default, how and when ACWP is calculated depend on the assigned resources'
Standard Rate, Overtime Rate, Per Use Cost, and Cost accrual settings in the
Resource Information dialog box, as well as the actual work reported, fixed
costs for tasks, and the status date or today's date. Microsoft Project can
calculate ACWP even if you do not have resources assigned. In this case, the
calculations are based on progress (percentage of completion or actual work)
and fixed costs to date for the task. If you prefer, you can have ACWP
calculated based on your entries in the Actual Cost (timephased) field. On
the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Calculation tab. Clear the
Actual costs are always calculated by Microsoft Project check box.

 

[bauer172uw]

So does no one know the FORMULAS for these fields? I have used the Project
Help and it says the same thing as these replies. What I am look in for is
something like BCWS = .../..., BCWP = .../..., Physical % Complete (summary
task) = .../...

Thank you both for your response but what I am really looking for is
mathematical formulas. Once I know the formulas then I can know why our
numbers are what they are and how we can better use the tool to get accurate
EV numbers.

Mike

 

[JackD]

It is just a word problem.

BCWS = Sum (Timephased baseline costs) from Project Start to Status Date.

You can't get any more precise than that (except perhaps by putting the
Sigma in the equation and adding project start and status dates as the
limits to the summation - which I'm not going to bother to do in ASCII art.

It is trivial to convert the words below into formulas as well. The
difficulty you will have is in determining the timephased values. That is
simply not just a value in a single field but is instead a summation of
values. How it is determined is explained in the help example below.