Communications
| How many people in a communications network; n=number of people | |
PERT
| Weighted average of three estimates (optimistic, realistic, and pessimistic) | |
Standard deviation (SD)
| A PMBOK® Guide heuristic for calculating standard deviation from the mean 1SD either side of the mean ≈ 68% 2SD either side of the mean ≈ 95% 3SD either side of the mean ≈ 99.7% | |
Variance
| The standard deviation squared | |
Planned value (PV)
| How much you planned to spend on what you planned to have achieved. The total PV for the project is the budget at completion (BAC) | = planned % complete × BAC |
Earned value (EV)
| The value of the work performed expressed in dollars | = actual % complete × BAC |
Actual cost (AC)
| How much you actually spent on what you actually achieved | |
Budget at completion (BAC)
| How much you originally planned for the project to cost and the total planned value (PV) for the project | |
Cost variance (CV)
| The difference between what you have earned and what it cost at a certain point in time; positive is good; negative is bad | = EV – AC |
Cost performance index (CPI)
| Cost variance (CV) expressed as an index; above 1 is good, below 1 is bad | = EV/AC |
Schedule variance (SV)
| The difference between what you have earned and what you planned to have achieved at a certain point in time; positive is good; negative is bad | = EV – PV |
Schedule performance index (SPI)
| Schedule variance (SV) expressed as an index; above 1 is good, below 1 is bad | = EV/PV |
Estimate at completion (EAC)
| How much the project is forecast to cost at completion | = AC + ETC = AC + (BAC – EV) = BAC/CPI = AC+[(BAC – EV)/(CPI × SPI)] |
Estimate to complete (ETC)
| How much more money it will cost to finish the project | = EAC – AC |
Variance at completion (VAC)
| Difference between what you thought the project would cost and what it actually ends up costing; positive is good; negative is bad
| = BAC – EAC |
To complete performance index (TCPI)
| The rate at which you have to go to achieve the desired outcome of either BAC or EAC; above 1 is bad, below 1 is good | = (BAC – EV/(BAC – AC) = (BAC – EV/(EAC – AC) |
Point of total assumption (PTA)
| The point in a form of fixed-price contract at which the seller assumes total responsibility for all cost increases
| = target cost +((ceiling price – target price)/buyer’s % share of cost overrun) |