Chapter 12
It All Begins with a Baseline
In This Chapter
Saving plan information with a baseline
Making use of multiple baselines
Setting a baseline
Saving interim plans
When you go on a diet (and I know you all have at one time or another!), you step on the scale the first day to check your weight. Then, as your diet progresses, you have a benchmark against which you can compare your dieting ups and downs.
Project doesn’t have a weight problem, but it does have a method of benchmarking your project data so that you can compare the actual activity that takes place on your tasks against your original plan. This saved version of your plan data is called a baseline, and it includes all the information in your project, such as task timing, resource assignments, and costs.
Project also provides something called an interim plan, which is essentially a timing checklist. It includes only the actual start and finish dates of tasks as well as the estimated start and finish dates for tasks not yet started.
This chapter shows you when, why, and how to save a baseline and interim plan for your project.
All about Baselines
Saving a baseline is like freezing a mosquito in amber: It’s a permanent record of your estimates of time, money, and resource workload for your project at the moment when you consider your plan final and before you begin any activity. A baseline is saved in your original Project file and exists right alongside any actual activity that you record on your tasks.
You can use ...
