How do you baseline a project plan

For example, you may want to set an interim plan on a monthly or quarterly basis. If you are setting a baseline for specific tasks, select the tasks, including subtasks and summary tasks, that you want to include in your baseline plan.

If you are setting a baseline for the entire project, skip this step. To select nonadjacent tasks, hold down CTRL, and then click each task that you want. You can select up to 10 tasks at one time. Click the Project tab. To set the baseline for only the tasks that you selected in the Gantt Chart view, click Selected tasks. To all summary tasks Select this check box if you want updated baseline data for the selected tasks to be rolled up to the corresponding summary tasks.

Otherwise, baseline data for summary tasks may not accurately reflect subtask baseline data. From subtasks into selected summary task s Select this check box if you want baseline data for selected summary tasks to be updated to reflect both deletions of subtasks and added tasks for which you previously saved baseline values.

Note: If you selected both subtasks and their summary tasks, select both check boxes. In the Copy box, click the start and finish or baseline values that you want to save. The current start and finish, and baseline values are not numbered. In the Into box, click the name of the interim plan into which you want to copy the values. Interim plans are stored in the start and finish fields. Note: If you select one baseline in the Copy box and another baseline in the Into box, you will save a baseline, rather than an interim plan.

All baseline data will be copied. If you select a baseline in the Copy box, and a start and finish interim plan in the Into box, only the start date and finish date from the baseline will be copied to the interim plan. Click Entire project or Selected tasks to save the portion of the schedule that you want. If changes to your initial plan occur after you set a baseline or an interim plan, you can update the saved data. Tip: If changes to your plan occur while your project is underway, you may find it helpful to save a second set of baseline or interim data, rather than updating your existing saved data.

In the Task Name field, select the tasks, including subtasks and summary tasks, that have baseline or interim data that you want to update. If you are updating baseline or interim data for the entire project, skip this step.

If you are updating a baseline, click Set baseline , and then select the baseline that you want to update. If you are updating an interim plan, click Set interim plan.

In the Copy list, select the data that you are copying. In the Into list, click the interim plan that you want to update. To update the baseline or interim data for the entire project, click Entire Project.

To update the baseline or interim data for only the tasks that you selected in the Gantt Chart view, click Selected tasks.

Under Roll up baselines , select how you want the updated baseline data to be rolled up:. From subtasks into selected summary task s Select this check box if you want baseline data for selected summary tasks to be updated to reflect both the deletions of subtasks and added tasks for which you previously saved baseline values. After you set baseline or interim data, you can compare it with the scheduled and actual data to see how your project is tracking against your initial goals.

After you set a baseline for the entire project, you can view the baseline data side-by-side with the current planned data, the actual data, and the variance.

On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click Project Information. To view variance information in a sheet view, click the View tab. In the Data group, click Tables , and then Variance. To view variance information graphically, click the View tab. The Variance table shows start and finish dates for both scheduled information and baseline information, making it possible to evaluate your prediction of how the project would progress baseline by comparing that prediction with how the project is in fact progressing actual.

If the variance in your project doesn't show the values that you expect, there are several possible explanations:. You might not have set a baseline. The variance is the baseline value compared with the actual value for a field. If there is no baseline, Project calculates this difference by using a 0 value for the baseline fields, resulting in variances that are as large as the scheduled field itself. You might have set multiple baselines, but Project uses only the initial baseline values that is, the values for the Baseline field, and not the values for Baseline1 through Baseline10 when calculating variance.

Dragging the taskbar to the right will cause your task to start later. After this, notice in the right chart how will look the two bars, for each task. If you change the table in the left to the Entry table, which is the default one in this view, notice that by changing the start date, a Start No Earlier Than constraint is added to the "Rough-in electric and plumbing in elevator" task.

This is visually marked in the Indicators column. When hovering over the icon shown in the Indicators column, the tooltip will say that the task has set a constraint, specifying the type and the date of the constraint. Here we will also insert Start and Finish columns. Right-click on Baseline Finish column and select Insert Column from the contextual menu. In the Column Definition dialog select Start field. Proceed in the same way and right-click on Baseline Work column.

Select Finish in the Column Definition dialog. In this way, the Start column will be inserted after Baseline Start column, and the Finish column will be placed after the Baseline Finish columns, to allow for an easier comparison.

For the "Rough-in electric and plumbing in elevator" task if we look closer in the Baseline Start and Start columns we notice that their values do not match like before. A similar situation is for Baseline Finish and Finish columns. This fact is also confirmed if in the right side panel we hover over the bar for this task and look at the information displayed in the tooltip.

Besides that, if you change the current table to the Variance one, you may see for this task a value of 5 days for the Start Variance and Finish Variance columns. So, for this task, in the Duration column type 2 d, meaning 2 days. The red bar at the top changes and increases its size to 2 days duration. But the grey bar beneath is still consistent and remains to indicate a duration of 5 hrs.

Also due to the dependency between tasks the following tasks are rescheduled, causing differences with the dates saved in the baseline, as you might also see in the right chart. Insert other two columns, namely Work and Cost to assess the current state of the schedule in terms of work and cost.

Drag the vertical divider between the two panels to the right to create more space for the left table. Then repeat the process again for the Cost column. Move the Cost column after Baseline Cost by dragging it to the right. If you look in this table at the "Perform architect's inspection" task, you may notice the differences between the Baseline Duration and Duration values, and Baseline Finish and Finish values.

Also the change in the current task duration draws some changes in the current values for Work and Cost , being different from their counterpart values stored in the baseline. Now, that you've set a baseline for your project, you can compare the actual dates to the original planned dates, that were captured in the baseline. In this way, you can use the baseline as a basis of comparison as you track progress of the project.

So you have a delay of a few days, compared to the initial schedule. Another place where you can see the impact of baseline is in the Statistics dialog. A project baseline plan helps project managers set a perimeter and guardrails nobody can cross without discussing it in the first place and illustrates if change is feasible.

In addition, a solid initial plan is one way you can highlight disconnects and inconsistencies between the sales and project teams early on. Read on about the five reasons why you need a baseline here. To evaluate different aspects of the project, three types of baselines in project management are recognized - scope baseline, schedule baseline, and cost baseline.

The scope baseline is your approved scope statement. Scope baseline is used as a basis for comparison between the initially approved project deliverables and the actual project performance. As simple as that, the schedule baseline is the approved project schedule. Schedule baselines are then used to calculate the variance between planned and actuals.

For example, if a milestone was planned for 2 weeks, but it took 3 weeks to complete during execution, there is a 1 week variance, eventually meaning 1 week delay in the project schedule. The cost baseline answers the question: How much will the project cost? In other words, your approved project budget. In turn, schedule baseline helps determine when this money will be spent. All together they contribute to the performance measurement baseline. Despite the importance of creating project baselines, the process is still beset by many challenges and skepticism around planning.

To create a baseline that works for you, not against you, I suggest looking at some of the best practices in project management that take much of the pain and chaos out of baselining a project. First things first, the way you create your project baseline depends on your specific use case.

What does it mean, exactly? During the project initiation phase, you and your team will have to sit down to outline the project scope together.

To make sure every critical point in the project is counted to be supplied, break the project down into milestones, or bigger chunks of work in the first instance. Painting with a bigger brush will be the first step in creating your scope baseline. Select a project estimation technique that works best for your scenario and gauge how much time each milestone can take. To set your cost baseline, assign specific roles to complete every milestone.

In fact, resource planning always goes hand-in-glove with scoping a project. Note: Given that every role has a rate card, the measurements of planned cost, revenue, and profit will be calculated automatically.