A Pictorial View of the Earned Value Components
The following graphic shows, you can see how the Planned Value curve in green compares to the Actual Cost curve in blue and the Earned Value curve in red. The goal is to have the Actual Cost curve and the Earned Value curves both match the Planned Value curve. In this example, you can see that at the end of the first month, the Earned Value (actual work completed) was below the Planned Value, and the Actual Cost was above the Planned Value. This graphic clearly shows that the project is behind schedule and over budget.