The TSP uses earned value (EV) to measure your status against the plan. With the help of this measure, you will always know job status to within a few hours. However, EV works only when the plan accurately represents what you are doing and when all team members regularly measure their work. Figure 14.1 shows an example of the status information that TSP teams get every week. This team had completed 7 weeks of a 17-week project and was falling behind. To understand the problem, the team planning manager made the following calculations: