Question5 As the project manager you are reviewing the earned value analysis (EVA) report performed by your team. The Schedule Performance Index (SPI) is 0.87. What does this figure mean to you?Select one alternative: The project is getting 87 cents out of each dollar spent. Your project is running according to the budget. You are ahead of schedule. The progress of your project is only 87% of what it is planned, so you are behind the schedule. ResetMaximum marks: 2

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To interpret the Schedule Performance Index (SPI), we recall that SPI = EV / PV, where EV is earned value and PV is planned value. An SPI of 1.0 indicates schedule performance exactly as planned. Values below 1.0 mean the project is progressing more slowly than planned, while values above 1.0 indicate ahead-of-schedule performance.

Option 1: 'The project is getting 87 cents out of each dollar spent.' This statement describes cost performance, not schedule performance. The related metric is CPI (Cost Performance Index), which uses EV / AC (earned value over actual cost). So this option confuses SPI with CPI and is incorrect for describing the given SPI value.

Option 2: 'Your project is running according to the budget.' This would imply CPI around 1 (cost performance is on target). SPI does not measure budget alignment; it measures schedule. Thus this option misinterprets the meaning of SPI and is incorrect.

Option 3: 'You are ahead of schedule.' An SPI greater than 1 would indicate ahead-of-schedule performance. Since the SPI here is 0.87 (less than 1), this statement is false for the given value. It misunderstands what a value below 1 signifies.

Option 4: 'The progress of your project is only 87% of what it is planned, so you are behind the schedule.' This correctly reflects SPI = 0.87, meaning the actual progress is 87% of the planned progress, i.e., behind schedule. The phrasing matches the interpretation that schedule performance is lagging.

In summary, the first three options describe CPI, budget alignment, or ahead-of-schedule scenarios, all of which do not match an SPI of 0.87. The fourth option accurately captures the meaning of SPI = 0.87 as behind-schedule performance.

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