During the monitoring & controlling phase, you can perform variance analysis to determine the worth of your project at certain points of the schedule. Schedule variance is the difference between earned value and planned value. If your schedule variance is positive, then that means you are ahead of schedule; if it is negative, it means you are behind schedule. Cost variance is the difference between earned value and actual cost. If cost variance is positive, you are under budget; if it is negative, then you are over budget.

Does anyone have any experiences regarding performing variance analysis during this phase of medical device development? Were you ahead/behind schedule, over/under budget? Please share.