Schedule Baseline

Purpose

The schedule baseline is a real or theoretical construct that captures the approved schedule. It is used to provide a comparison or contrast with the actual progress of work against the schedule and to determine if performance to date is within acceptable parameters.

Application

The baseline is normally maintained with other project information in either project management or spreadsheet software. It is used both for comparison and reporting, and is normally a critical element in project status reports, progress reports, and forecasts. The schedule baseline serves as affirmation of what the project’s schedule looked like when the project was originally approved. According to the Project Management Institute, the schedule baseline incorporates any approved changes.

The schedule baseline is developed by networking individual work elements and determining the path or paths with the longest total duration. That path is then compared against the project due date, or it may serve as the determinant of the project end date.

Content

The schedule baseline includes work element-by-work element detail depicted across the timeline. It can be reflected in a Gantt chart, network diagram, or a simple milestone chart, highlighting important moments in the approved schedule. Regardless of the display approach, the schedule baseline will include the early start time, early finish time, latest possible start time, latest possible finish time, duration, lag, lead, and relationships for each activity in the project.

Approaches

Because schedule information comes in a variety of formats and can be displayed in the context of networked relationships or a baseline timeline, the formats for the schedule baseline are legion. While the Gantt chart is among the most common, milestone charts highlighting significant events are also relatively commonplace. For all scheduled activities, the activities driving the schedule baseline should be those that the funding organization recognizes as the agreed-on level of effort for the project.

Considerations

Baselines are fixed. They do not change with the day-to-day ebb and flow of the project. While changes should be reflected with the baseline, the original baseline should remain intact. The only time a baseline should change is when it is rendered meaningless by the sheer volume of changes (either planned or unplanned). Because the baseline serves as the primary metric for evaluating performance as the project progresses, the stability of the baseline is crucial.