BCWS (Planned Value or PV) fields

The BCWS (budgeted cost of work scheduled) fields contain the cumulative timephased baseline costs up to the status date or today's date. The timephased versions of these fields show values distributed over time.

There are several categories of BCWS fields.

Data Type    Currency

BCWS (task field)

Entry Type    Calculated

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

Best Uses    Add the BCWS field to a task sheet to review how much of the budget should have been spent on a task to date, according to the task's baseline cost.

Example    The baseline cost for a task is $500 and is evenly distributed over its duration. The baseline start for the task is June 1, and the baseline finish is August 1. If today's date is July 1, then the BCWS for the task is $250, since the task should be half done.

Remarks    You can compare the BCWS to the BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed) field to determine whether the task is behind or ahead of schedule in terms of cost. The SV (earned value schedule variance) field shows the comparison of these fields over time.

BCWS (resource field)

Entry Type    Calculated

How Calculated    To calculate BCWS for a resource, Microsoft Office Project adds the timephased baseline costs of the resource up to the status date.

Best Uses    Add the BCWS field to a resource sheet to review how much of the budget should have been spent on a resource to date.

Example    Sean has a BCWS of $100 on one assigned task, $200 on another assigned task, and $50 on a third assigned task. In the Resource Sheet view, you see that Sean has a rolled up BCWS of $350 up to the status date.

Remarks    You can compare the BCWS to the BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed) field to determine whether the resource is behind or ahead of schedule in terms of cost. The SV (earned value schedule variance) field shows the comparison of these fields.

BCWS (assignment field)

Entry Type    Calculated

How Calculated    To calculate BCWS for the assignment, Microsoft Office Project adds the timephased baseline costs of an assignment up to the status date or today's date.

Best Uses    Add the BCWS field to the timephased portion of the Task Usage or Resource Usage view to review how much of the budget should have been spent on an assignment to date.

Example    The baseline cost for an assignment is $500 and is evenly distributed over its duration. The baseline start for the assignment is June 1, and the baseline finish is August 1. If today's date is July 1, then the BCWS for the assignment is $250.

Remarks    You can compare BCWS to the BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed) field to determine whether the assignment is behind or ahead of schedule in terms of cost. The SV (earned value schedule variance) field shows the comparison of these fields over time.

BCWS (task-timephased field)

Entry Type    Calculated

How Calculated    To calculate timephased BCWS for a task, Microsoft Office Project adds the cumulative timephased baseline costs up to the status date.

Best Uses    Add the BCWS field to the timephased portion of the Task Usage view to display how much of the budget should have been spent on a task. Also, use this field to plot BCWS on an S-curve graph.

Example    The baseline cost for a task is $500, and is evenly distributed over its duration. The baseline start for the task is June 1, and the baseline finish is August 1. If today's date is July 1, then the BCWS is $250. On June 1, the timephased value is $12.50. On June 2, the value is $25. On June 3, the value is $37.50. On June 4, the value is $50. The timephased values are shown in this manner, distributed and accumulated across the month of June, until you see the total BCWS of $250 on July 1.

Remarks    You can compare BCWS to the BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed) field to determine whether the task is behind or ahead of schedule in terms of cost. The timephased SV (earned value schedule variance) field shows the comparison of these fields.

BCWS (resource-timephased field)

Entry Type    Calculated

How Calculated    To calculate timephased BCWS for a resource, Microsoft Office Project adds the timephased baseline costs of the resource up to the status date.

Best Uses    Add the BCWS field to the timephased portion of the Resource Usage view. You'll display how much of the budget should have been spent on a resource to date. You can also use this field to plot BCWS on an S-curve graph.

Example    Sean has a BCWS of $100 on one assigned task, $50 on another assigned task, and $50 on a third assigned task. In the timephased portion of the Resource Usage view, the past four days show the timephased BCWS as $50, $100, $150, and $200.

Remarks    You can compare the BCWS to the BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed) field to determine whether the resource is behind or ahead of schedule in terms of cost. The timephased SV (earned value schedule variance) field shows the comparison of these fields over time.

BCWS (assignment-timephased field)

Entry Type    Calculated

How Calculated    To calculate timephased BCWS for an assignment, Microsoft Office Project adds the timephased baseline costs on the assignment up to the status date of the project.

Best Uses    Add the BCWS field to the timephased portion of the Task Usage or Resource Usage view. This field displays how much of the budget should have been spent on an assignment to date. You can also use this field to plot BCWS on an S-curve graph.

Example    The baseline cost for an assignment is $500 and is evenly distributed over its duration. The baseline start for the assignment is June 1, and the baseline finish is August 1. If today's date is July 1, then the BCWS is $250. On June 1, the timephased value is $12.50. On June 2, the value is $25. On June 3, the value is $37.50. On June 4, the value is $50. The timephased values are shown in this manner, accumulated and distributed across the month of June, until you see the total BCWS of $250 on July 1.

Remarks    You can compare the BCWS to the BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed) field to determine whether the assignment is behind or ahead of schedule in terms of cost. The timephased SV (earned value schedule variance) field shows the comparison of these fields over time.