Do You Need EV Calculated at the Resource Level?

You are correct; out-of-the-box P6 does not calculate Earned Value (EV) at the resource assignment level. It only runs EV at the activity level which is fine for a start, but what to do when you need to 'dig deeper' and analyze crew performance? You can't use Global Change to calculate the resource assignment EV because the activity percent complete isn't available in the Global Change list of fields.

A very simple option is to use TAPS to input your schedule updates. TAPS is P6 updating using barcodes (plus additional functionality). By using TAPS, updates are faster and more accurate giving you (and your team) more time for schedule analysis. Yes, TAPS runs EV calculations at the resource level.

Let’s have a look at updating just a few activities:
We will quickly update 4 activities in our project to see TAPS in action.

First, we login to TAPS.

Once TAPS launches, we update the ‘Update Time’ to our current data date and time. Next step is to scan our updates. Simply scan the Activity ID Barcode and then scan the barcode(s) for the applicable progress status.

Once we have our updates scanned in, click ‘Save Progress’.
It's quick and simple to update activities using TAPS!
Back in P6, we refresh our screen and even before we reschedule the file with the current data date, in the resources tab in activity details we can see the EV calculations for our resource.
We could have a number of resources on our activity (as required). This activity also does not have material assignments, but notice that you have columns showing earned material calculations as well.
Above is just one simple example of using the Resource EV calculations in the Resource Assignments Screen. These calculations are also available for use in tabular reports.

Be creative and don’t worry when you need EV calculations at the resource level in P6 – TAPS has it covered for you.