Do I have EVM Planned Value understood correctly?

Question

I am struggling to get all the PMI EVM terminology sorted out. The last key for me was planned value (PV).

Let say I have a task and my BAC is $100,000 and scheduled for 4 weeks.

2 weeks in I am done 40% of the work and spent $50,000. So:

• PV: $50,000
• EV: $40,000
• AC: $50,000
• CPI: 0.9 (over budget)
• SPI: 0.9 (behind schedule)

6 weeks out I am done 90% of the work and spent $105,000. So:

• PV: $100,000 (according to the original baseline schedule 4 weeks should have got me $100,000 of EV)
• EV: $90,000
• AC: $105,000
• CPI: 0.86 (more over budget)
• SPI: 0.9 (still behind schedule)

7 weeks out I am done 100% of the work and spent $112,000. So:

• PV: $100,000 (according to the original baseline schedule 4 weeks should have got me $100,000 of EV)
• EV: $100,000
• AC: $112,000
• CPI: 0.90 (over budget)
• SPI: 1.00 (always 1 when complete)

My questions (have I explained / understood this correctly?):

• As soon as you are past your original budgeted timeline for a task your PV = BAC
• PV is the cost you should have accrued if your original schedule was correct (for the same time frame)

Answer 1

Everything you wrote is correct. Your last bullet my read better as, "PV is the amount of cost accrued at a certain time on the project's timeline."

In your example, your PV was distributed equally across time, i.e., at the end of two weeks you should have 50% of work. Just be aware of you're not already that PV is rarely equal across time.

SPI always approaches 1 as you indicated, which is why EV is not a great schedule control tool. Have a look at Earned Schedule. It is superior to EV to control your schedule.