Baselines
Project baselines refer to the scheduled start and end dates of each activity and milestone in an activity structure on a certain date. The project schedule information on a particular date can be saved for future reference. Using a baseline, you can compare the scheduled dates set for a baseline and the actual dates to evaluate the accuracy of the planning. Multiple baselines can be created. You can specify the dates using these sessions:
- The Create/Update Baseline (tppss2220m000) session.
- The Activity Baseline (tppss2120m000) session.
- The Milestone Baseline (tppss2121m000) session.
A baseline is a snapshot of the scheduled timeline of activities. This can be used to time-phase a top down budget version using the Generate Time-Phased Budget (tpptc5200m000) session. The time-phased budget is calculated by using the budget version and the baseline (considering the earned value method, and the scheduled dates of the activities).
A baseline is used for performance measurement. To generate performance measurement, the baseline must be Approved and the budget version must be set to 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 Infor 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:
- Milestone Baseline (tppss2121m000)
- Milestone Baseline (tppss2121m000)
- Activity Baseline (tppss2120m000)
From each of these sessions, you can access the Create/Update Baseline (tppss2220m000) session to create or update a baseline that is based on the activity structure of this specific project.
You can use the Baselines (tppss0520m000) session to view all the baselines of a project and modify the baseline status. The baseline statuses are:
- Free: The baseline is created.
- Approved: The baseline is approved.
You can only modify the baseline data if the status of the baseline is Free.