Baselines

Baseline means the approved project plan that includes schedule, budget, material consumption, etc. It is used for measuring project performance. During project execution you compare the performance with approved data, measure and analyze deviations.

Any PM software suggests to store project baselines and compare with the baseline your current project version.

Actually there may be not one but several baselines for the same project. You may be interested to compare project performance with the contract baseline, with the internal baseline, with the original baseline, etc.

Usually project baseline may be changed only with the change of the project scope.

So the baseline is useful for estimating project performance.

Hi James - Back to Basics



In Powerproject in the File Drop down is a tab called Baseline - What If Manager.



When you have finished your programme use the software to copy your work into a Baseline File.



In format / barchart / baselines select the baseline that you want to underline your original bars.



When you change durations or update progress you have a direct visual comparison of the diferences.



It is an invaluable tool in delay analysis.



P3 has a similar system called Targets but it is nowhere near as flexible.



Best regards



Mike T.

Brad,



One of the (dis)advantages of going on another PM related course last week. All this stuff is still fresh in the mind!!



Regards,



Darren

Hi James,



Your baseline should be your sanctioned budget. It should include all your capital and revenue costs, but some scheduling applications only refer to baselines as the original effort and start / finish estimates. This is then used as a reference point for tracking actual progress and measuring change in the project schedule.



Regards,



Darren