Blog · Territory, capacity and quota planning
Compare the approved budget for accepted agile deliverables with actual project costs. Work from dated backlog snapshots, preserve scope changes, and reconcile the result by reporting period.
Earned value analysis in agile projects compares the budget assigned to accepted deliverables with the actual costs incurred by the reporting cutoff. The difficult part is maintaining comparable scope as the backlog changes. A dated baseline and a clear completion rule let finance distinguish delivery performance from a newly approved plan.
Use a deliverable-level dollar budget approved by the project sponsor and finance. Keep its scheduled completion date, actual completion evidence, and the financial reporting rule beside it. Never turn story points into dollars without an approved mapping.
For this example, a deliverable earns its full approved budget only after it meets the team's completion criteria and has dated business-owner acceptance. Otherwise it earns nothing. This is a financial measurement policy for the example, rather than a requirement to add an acceptance gate to Scrum.
The Scrum Guide says work must meet the Definition of Done to form part of an Increment. It also describes the Product Backlog as emergent. Those principles make dated completion evidence and preserved reporting snapshots especially useful: the current backlog alone cannot show what the team originally planned.
A US services company reviews a customer onboarding project on September 25, 2026. Its deliverable export contains the approved budget, planned completion date, and acceptance date. Finance supplies cumulative actual costs through that date and through the prior cutoff, September 11, 2026.
Actual costs include the agreed project labor, supplier invoices, and accruals. Work in progress still incurs cost even when it earns no acceptance credit. The broader project cost management process establishes which costs belong to the project before this delivery comparison begins.
| Deliverable | Approved budget (USD) | Planned completion | Accepted | Prior actual cost (USD) | Current actual cost (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A: intake checklist | 20,000 | September 11, 2026 | September 10, 2026 | 22,000 | 22,000 |
| B: exception workflow | 30,000 | September 25, 2026 | Not accepted | 4,000 | 24,000 |
| C: training package | 15,000 | October 9, 2026 | Not accepted | 0 | 9,000 |
| D: approval guide | 10,000 | September 25, 2026 | September 24, 2026 | 0 | 12,000 |
| Total | 75,000 | 26,000 | 67,000 |
The acceptance column contains real spreadsheet dates or empty cells; the words “Not accepted” are display labels here. Validate that every budgeted row has a planned date. Match cost rows to a deliverable or an explicitly identified project support category, and investigate unmapped costs before interpreting performance.
Put the table's columns in A through F, with detail in rows 2 through 5. Put the current cutoff in J1 as a real date.
Planned value = Approved budget scheduled to be completed by the cutoff
Earned value = Approved budget of deliverables accepted by the cutoff
Cost variance = Earned value minus actual cost
In Google Sheets, the planned-value formula is:
=SUMIFS(B2:B5,C2:C5,"<="&$J$1)
Earned value excludes blank acceptance dates:
=SUMIFS(B2:B5,D2:D5,">0",D2:D5,"<="&$J$1)
These formulas use SUMIFS to total rows meeting multiple criteria. Actual cost is =SUM(F2:F5). Covirage is not affiliated with Google.
| Check at September 25 | Calculation from deliverable rows | Result (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Planned value | 20,000 + 30,000 + 10,000 | 60,000 |
| Earned value | 20,000 + 10,000 | 30,000 |
| Actual cost | 22,000 + 24,000 + 9,000 + 12,000 | 67,000 |
| Cost variance | 30,000 - 67,000 | -37,000 |
| Schedule variance, in budget dollars | 30,000 - 60,000 | -30,000 |
The negative cost variance says accepted work carries less budget than the cost incurred. It does not establish the final overrun: some spending supports deliverable C, which was scheduled for a later date. The schedule variance is a budget-dollar gap, not a count of days late. For the general efficiency ratios and forecast formulas, use earned value CPI and SPI.
The source rows show that only A was scheduled and accepted at the prior cutoff. Subtract prior cumulative balances to obtain movement during the reporting interval.
| Measure | September 11 cumulative (USD) | September 25 cumulative (USD) | Interval movement (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planned value | 20,000 | 60,000 | 40,000 |
| Earned value | 20,000 | 30,000 | 10,000 |
| Actual cost | 26,000 | 67,000 | 41,000 |
The proof is prior balance plus interval movement equals current balance for every measure. The actual-cost movement must also match the cost ledger for the same interval, including accrual reversals. Do not compare the interval's accepted budget with cumulative project spending.
All dollar calculations here use whole-dollar inputs without rounding. The earned value analysis report covers how to present the resulting review; keep the underlying acceptance and scope checks with its supporting workbook.
Suppose the sponsor approves a new deliverable with a $12,000 budget on September 28, after this reporting cutoff. The budget bridge is:
| Baseline movement | Budget (USD) |
|---|---|
| Original approved scope | 75,000 |
| Approved addition | 12,000 |
| Revised approved scope | 87,000 |
Record the approval, effective date, and planned acceptance date in the next baseline version. Retain the September 25 snapshot. A live backlog that now contains more work cannot be used to rewrite the earlier comparison without disclosing the restatement.
If a deliverable is split, transfer its budget to the children and retire the parent from counting. Reordering the backlog, changing a story estimate, and approving extra project funding are different events; the change register should make each visible.
Bring a sample of your own dated backlog, approved budget, change register, and cost export. Covirage maps the columns; its tools compute and check the comparisons, and the external AI model explains the results with every figure traced to its rows. Create a free Covirage account and bring your project file.
See project cost control for the supporting business use.
Yes, if the financial baseline has a version and changes have approval dates. Preserve each closed reporting snapshot. Apply approved additions, removals, or transfers prospectively, and explain the budget bridge so that a scope change cannot silently erase an earlier delivery gap.
Only when the organization has approved and documented that mapping for the relevant work. This example instead assigns approved dollar budgets directly to deliverables. Story points alone do not establish a dollar budget, and changing estimates should not retrospectively change earned value.
That depends on the measurement rule approved before work begins. Under the acceptance rule used here, unfinished deliverables earn no credit. If a company uses weighted milestones, the milestone budgets and completion evidence must be explicit before anyone reports partial earnings.