Earned Value (EV)
EVM Terms
Reviewed by forProject Technology - updated Sep 2026
Quick definition: Earned Value (EV) is another name for Budgeted Cost for Work Performed (BCWP) — the value of work actually completed, expressed in terms of its original budget.
Earned Value measures how much of the planned budget has been "earned" by physically completed work, independent of what was actually spent. It's one of the three core EVM data points, alongside BCWS (Planned Value) and ACWP (Actual Cost), that every other performance metric is built from.
Why it matters
Earned Value is what makes objective performance measurement possible: comparing it to BCWS shows schedule performance, and comparing it to ACWP shows cost performance. Without it, cost and schedule status can only be tracked separately, not tied back to actual accomplishment.
Also known as
Budgeted Cost for Work Performed (BCWP)
Used in
Cost Performance Index (CPI = BCWP / ACWP); Schedule Performance Index (SPI = BCWP / BCWS); Cost Variance; Schedule Variance
See also
FAQ
Is Earned Value the same thing as Budgeted Cost for Work Performed?
Yes — Earned Value (EV) and BCWP are simply two names for the same figure: the budgeted value of work actually completed.
Does Earned Value reflect how much money was actually spent?
No — that's Actual Cost (ACWP). Earned Value reflects the budgeted value of the work completed, which is then compared against actual cost to assess cost performance.
Definition maintained by forProject Technology.
© 2026 forProject Technology, Inc.
© 2026 forProject Technology, Inc.
