Earned value measures work accomplishment, not actual costs
The planned value baseline can be used to control both cost variances and schedule variances. We will discuss variances more in the lesson on Project Control. During execution of the project, the team measures the amount of work done in each time period. The “work done” has a value – it is the same value created during planning (either cost, hours, or number of work products delivered). Remember, earned value is the budget assigned to the amount of work done, not the “out-of-pocket” actual cost to pay for that work.