We can use Microsoft Project to hold our schedule baseline and/or our cost baseline. The WBS is typically used as the scope baseline.
There are 11 baselines available in Microsoft Project. They are Baseline (sometimes referred to as Baseline 0), and Baseline1 – Baseline10. When the project is ready to be baselined for the first time, both Baseline and Baseline10 should be set for the Entire Project.
Baseline should always hold the current baseline, and Baseline10 should be maintained as the original baseline. If the project is rebaselined to add scope, the change should be made to Baseline only, not Baseline10. Baseline10 should be used at the end of the project during Lessons Learned to help understand the evolution of the project.
Baseline1 – Baseline10 may be used to hold interim baselines during the project execution.
Baseline is used by default for some functionality in Microsoft Project including the Tracking Gantt view and variance calculations.
If a project is rebaselined, only new tasks and impacted tasks should be set.
When you set a baseline in Microsoft Project, Baseline(n) Start is set to Start and Baseline(n) Finish is set to Finish. Additional baseline fields are set, e.g. Baseline(n) Cost, and Baseline(n) Work.
Remember that Start is equal to Early Start and Finish is equal to Early Finish. This means that you are setting your baseline to the Early dates for your project. These are the earliest date that each task and milestone can start and finish based on the schedule model – the best case scenario. As execution begins, it is extremely likely that some of these dates will not be met.
Prior to the Baseline being set for the first time, the baseline dates, Baseline Start and Baseline Finish display NA.
To set a baseline in Microsoft Project, on the Project ribbon, in the Schedule section, click the pulldown for Set Baseline and select Set Baseline.
Leave all defaults the first time: Set Baseline is set to Baseline, and For: Entire Project. Click OK.
The baseline dates and other baseline field values are set.
Your baseline plan and your forecast plan are the same at this moment, until progress or changes are added to the project.
Repeat the process, this time setting Baseline10 instead of Baseline. Baseline10 will never be changed as it will always hold our original baseline.
You are now ready to begin execution on your project. As you progress, the baseline enables you to measure progress and identify any variances.
We will cover how to handle rebaselining in a later section.