In Earned Value Management (EVM), as defined by the PMBOK® Guide, the Schedule Variance (SV) is a measure of schedule performance expressed as the difference between the earned value and the planned value.
Formula:
$$SV = EV - PV$$
EV (Earned Value): The value of work actually performed expressed in terms of the budget assigned to that work. In this case, it is 25 days worth of work.
PV (Planned Value): The authorized budget assigned to scheduled work. In this case, it is 13 days worth of work.
Calculation:
$$SV = 25 - 13 = 12$$
Analysis of the result:
Positive SV (+12): A positive value indicates that the project is ahead of schedule because the team has completed more work than was originally planned for this point in time.
Negative SV: A negative value would indicate that the project is behind schedule.
Zero SV: Indicates that the project is exactly on schedule.
Analysis of other options:
A (-12): This would occur if the team had only completed 1 day of work against 13 planned ($1 - 13$). It represents a project that is significantly behind schedule.
B (1.15): This does not match any direct EVM calculation for this data. (Note: The Schedule Performance Index (SPI), which is $EV / PV$, would be approximately $1.92$ in this scenario, showing extremely high efficiency).
C (38): This is the sum of the two values ($25 + 13$), which is not a standard project management metric.
By calculating the Schedule Variance, the Project Manager can objectively report to stakeholders that the project is performing better than expected and can use this data to adjust future resource allocations or identify " lessons learned " regarding the team ' s high productivity.
