Project Baselines

[Mary]

MS Project calculates a work variance by comparing baseline to
scheduled work. If I re-baseline my project, I would like to calculate
the work variance comparing the most current baseline (e.g., baseline
1) to the scheduled work. How can this be done and still retain
information about the original baseline?

 

[Babar]

Mary,
You can save multiple baselines (upto 9 or 10). Go to Tools -> Tracking
-> Save Baseline. This way you can still have the original baseline as
well as new baseline.

Babar

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Mary --

Yes, you can certainly do this. You will need to do two things:

1. Save the current baseline in the Baseline1 set of fields
2. Create a custom field with a formula to calculate Work - Baseline1 Work.
The Work Variance field will continue to calculate the variance of Work -
Baseline Work, and you cannot change that. This is why you need a custom
field with a formula.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mark Everett | PMP]

Mary - There is another method:

Save your project or tasks using Baseline 0 (the original baseline) and
Baseline 1. Baseline 0 usually drives the baseline views in PWA,
Project and Portfolio Analyzer. Baseline 1 is a second copy. If you
need to rebaseline, save the new baseline as Baseline 0 again and
baseline 2. Baseline one now represents the original baseline, and
Baseline 0 is the new authorized baseline for your variance
calculations, views, etc. If you have to do it again, save Baseline 0
and Baseline 3, leaving Baseline 1 to represent the original baseline
and Baseline 2 to represent to first authorized change to the baseline.

Hope this helps,
Mark Everett
www.quantumpm.com