GRACE · Module 9 · Managing Execution 2

The three signals — read together, always

No single number tells the truth. Hold all three against each other before you decide a task is healthy.

Value earned — how much of the work is actually done.

How much budget it took to get there.

Where you sit against the dates the plan committed to.

Healthy = value earned keeps pace with fee burned, on the planned dates. Any gap is the story.

Enter three numbers for a task or phase. The calculator returns the two variances and their indices, with a plain-language read.

PV — Planned Value ($)

EV — Earned Value ($)

AC — Actual Cost ($)

Schedule Variance (EV − PV)

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Cost Variance (EV − AC)

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Schedule Index (EV / PV)

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Cost Index (EV / AC)

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Seeded with Oakhaven Design Development.

A number is data; a number against the plan is information. Always ask “versus what we planned?” on three axes.

Did we earn what we planned to earn by now? (Schedule Variance)

Did the work cost what we planned for it? (Cost Variance)

Are we where the plan said we’d be on the calendar?

Keep all three variances small and visible. Drift grows in silence.

Read these together each week. Any one out of line is a prompt to act — and to decide who carries the cost.

Is earned value keeping pace with fee burned? (CPI near or above 1.0)
Are we on the planned dates, or holding them with overtime? (SPI & effort)
Is any task quietly over-consuming hours vs. its budget?
Is unbilled work building up where it shouldn’t?
If the team is absorbing client-caused rework — has the cost been surfaced to the client?

The team’s hours are not free to give away. A signal is only worth the action it triggers.