To use baselines

Project baselines refer to the scheduled start and end dates of each activity and milestone in an activity structure at a certain date. The situation at a certain date can be saved for future reference. Using a baseline you can evaluate the accuracy of the planning by comparing the scheduled dates saved in a baseline to the actual dates. Over time multiple baselines can be created. You can enter dates through:

  • The Create/Update Baseline (tppss2220m000) session.
  • The Activity Baseline (tppss2120m000) session.
  • The Milestone Baseline (tppss2121m000) session.
Use a baseline for...

A baseline is a snapshot of the scheduled time line of activities. It can be used to time-phase a top down budget version in the Generate Time-Phased Budget (tpptc5200m000) session. The time-phased budget is calculated by using the budget version and the baseline (taking into account the earned value method, and the scheduled dates of the activities).

A baseline is used for performance measurement. If you want to generate performance measurement, the baseline must be Approved and also the budget version must be Actual. The amount for a scheduled activity that can be released depends on the performance measurement period as established in the baseline.

Example

Activity A has a distributed amount of a 10,000 euros with the Start and End Percentage earned value method. 10% is released when starting the activity, 90% is released at finishing it. The baseline is approved and falls into two periods. In the first period A starts, therefore an amount of 1000 euros is released for that period. In the second period when A is finished, an amount of 9000 euros is released. To release the budget amount LN looks at the baseline data and the earned value method.

Creating a baseline

The baseline data depends on the start and end dates of the activity structure or milestones used in a project. In Planning, you can update a baseline using one of these sessions:

  • Baselines (tppss0520m000)
  • Milestone Baseline (tppss2121m000)
  • Activity Baseline (tppss2120m000)

From each of these sessions you can start the Create/Update Baseline (tppss2220m000) session where you can create or update a baseline that is based on the underlying activity structure of this specific project.

The Baselines (tppss0520m000) session provides an overview of all the baselines of a project and enables you to change the baseline status.