Calculation Problem When Using Multiple Baselines

[Louise Anderson]

I read all the postings on multiple baselines (thank you for making it clear
that the interim plan idea is a bad one).

My issue is this- I have set up a view that shows Baseline Start/Finish,
Start/Finish and Baseline1 Start/Finish. I am only updating selected tasks.
When I update the Baseline1 Start date it is not updating Baseline1 Finish
date, nor are the summary tasks updating.

I am sure this is something really easy, some option I am not turning on. We
have it set to Autocalculate and I verified that it does calculate as
expected when I change a Start date. I also had it set to roll up to summary
tasks for the selected tasks.

(Using MS Project 2003 SP2)

Thanks in advance

 

[JulieS]

Hi Louise,

The Baseline fields are not designed to calculate off one another. When you
save the baseline (either Baseline or Baseline1 etc.) Project copies the
data from the Start field to Baseline Start and from the Finish field to
Baseline finish. The data is a copy of the information from the fields but
does not recalculate.

I'm not sure what you want to accomplish by updating the Baseline1 Start.
If you are trying to supply actual data (tracking) use the Actual Start
field. That will potentially change the Actual Finish field if you supply an
Actual Start that is different from the planned start.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[Louise Anderson]

Hi:

What I am trying to do is this:

We set a baseline on a large plan about a month ago. Last week, we found out
that one of our main tasks was not going to complete on time, but be about 30
days late. Our client has agreed that we can revise the plan, and calculate
our penalities from the new revised dates- ie set a new baseline and go
forward. However, they also want to see the original baseline dates whenever
we do our status reporting.

If they did not want to see the original baseline, then I would have simply
copied the original plan and created a new re-baselined plan. It is the need
to see the original baseline, plus the new base line that is causing this
issue. Perhaps I am not addressing the problem in the correct manner?

Thanks!
Louise

 

[Steve House]

There really is only one baseline for a plan - it is the schedule that
you actually expect to be able to work. Because expectations change as
new information becomes available, what you expect to really be able to
do may also change. The multiple baselines mainly are there to give you
an audit trail of your changing expectations. "First we thought we could
do it this way, but then this changed and we had to revise it to this
way, etc etc."