As stated in earlier posts, Planned Value is the expected value (or amount completed) for the project on a certain date, and the Actual Cost is what the project actually ends up costing. These two values matter in the Monitoring & Controlling phase because the are used to calculate Schedule Variance and Cost Variance. The relationships are as follows: Schedule Variance (SV) = Estimated Value (EV) – Planned Value (PV); and Cost Variance (CV) = Estimated Value (EV) – Actual Cost (AC). If the SV is positive, it means that the project is ahead of schedule. If it is negative, then the project is behind schedule. If the CV is positive, then the project is under budget. If it is negative, then the project is over budget. As a project manager, you want to try to maintain a positive SV and CV during the Monitoring and Controlling Phase. If the values are negative, then adjustments should be made.