Microsoft Project 2019 For Dummies

Chapter 14

It All Begins with a Baseline

IN THIS CHAPTER

Saving plan information with a baseline

Making use of multiple baselines

Setting and resetting baselines

Saving interim plans

Before you start tracking your progress, you need a benchmark to compare your status with so you know if you’re ahead or behind schedule. In project management, we call this benchmark a baseline. A schedule baseline is the agreed-upon version of the schedule, against which you’ll measure progress. It includes all information in the project, such as task timing, resource assignments, and costs.

An interim plan in Project is essentially a timing checklist. It includes the start and finish dates of tasks, and the estimated start and finish dates for tasks not yet started.

This chapter shows you when, why, and how to save a baseline and an interim plan for the project.

All about Baselines

After you complete all the planning necessary to develop a robust schedule (and other documents) for a project, and after you’ve made the schedule presentable, it’s time to baseline it. The baseline represents the project ...