When should i baseline a 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.

To have a look on it, in the Project menu, press on Project Information , then on Statistics , where you can see a baseline entry for Start , Finish , Duration , Work and Cost columns.

You can also notice in the Finish column a variance of 6. Notice also the differences between the Current Work and Baseline Work values, as well as for the Cost.

If you want to remove the baseline set in your project, go to the Project menu, press on the arrow down to the Set Baseline option and in the displayed list you will see Clear Baseline.

Here you also have the possibility to remove the Baseline for the entire project or only for selected tasks. If you prefer to see things in action, rather than reading text, watch out this video , which covers some of the topics from this section. Now that you've create the WBS structure of your project and the planning process is almost finished, you can set a baseline for your project.

You can set a baseline after you finished planning your project or you can set one after you finished a critical phase of your project and the baseline will contain information about the tasks, resources and assignments within their phase.

The project baseline should always come in-between the planning phase and the start of the project. You should only re-baseline when you have major changes in your project such as: delays, overrun of budget or loss of key resources. The right place in time to do the first baseline is when the initial planning is done and the budget is approved. Set a baseline for your project so that you can track its progress against the original project plan. A baseline is a reference point for the project schedule.

A project baseline is an initial snapshot of your schedule when you first save your project information to track progress and compare your updates. Baselines help you visualize and attain your project schedule, work and cost objectives. It is very useful especially in the case of small projects that use agile development, so they need to know in each week which is the difference between the original plan and the current status.

A baseline is a static copy of plan data that's compared with actual and current data. It refers to a set of data about project that represents state before the work actually began. Baselines helps you compare actual vs. Baseline your schedule means taking a copy of your schedule and set aside for comparison later on. A baseline saves nearly 20 pieces of information, including totals information for tasks, resources, and assignments. It will essentially store 5 things: cost, work, duration, start date and finish date.

In Project Plan , a baseline is a copy of the Start, Finish , Work , and Cost for all the Resources and Assignments , plus Duration for all the tasks in your project. When you do a baseline you save the following data about the project at that specific point in time: Tasks : Duration , Start and Finish dates , W ork , Cost. Resources : Work , Cost, Start and Finish. Assignments : Start and Finish dates, Work , Costs. In fact, these represent duplicated values of the planned start and finish dates and it just copied them in the Baseline Start and Baseline Finish columns.

This would include plans for social media posts for various platforms with detailed copy and design briefs. You can then map out your schedule in a content calendar, including optimized dates and times for each post. Finally, create a detailed budget to divide your costs across various sectors, e.

A project baseline should be documented and controlled. It should not be changed without following formal change control procedures, such as using a change request form and following a documented change approval process. Frequently changing a project baseline will make it difficult to use as a measurement for progress. The baseline may even become meaningless. However, when a significant change occurs, a project may be re-baselined. This means issuing a new, updated baseline to measure against.

Then, create the new one as a new plan, so you do not lose that historical data. A project baseline is a key tool for a successful project outcome. It helps you oversee the entire project, monitor performance , spot potential problems, and easily identify areas for change. The lack of a clear project baseline can lead to scope creep , cost overruns, and even project failure.

A good software system will enable you to effectively plan your project and create a project baseline that provides visibility to every team member. All stakeholders must understand and support the project baseline so that everyone is aligned on OKRs. There are at least six possible problems that may occur when a strong project baseline is absent:.

Guide overview 1. Project Management Basics 2. Project Management Methodologies 3. Project Lifecycle 4. Project Management Software 5. Team Collaboration Tips 6. 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.