Baselines

Before you update a schedule for the first time, you should create a baseline plan. A baseline is a complete copy of a project plan that you can compare to the current schedule to evaluate progress. Within layouts, you can display baseline data in graphical and column data format to perform cost and schedule analysis.

The simplest baseline plan is a complete copy, or snapshot, of the original schedule. This snapshot provides a target against which you can track a project's cost, schedule, and performance. When you create a baseline, you can save a copy of the current project to use as the baseline or you can choose to convert another project in the EPS hierarchy to a baseline for the current project.

You can save an unlimited number of baselines per project; however, the number of baselines you can actually save per project is determined by administrative preference settings, which are typically controlled by the administrator. Regardless of the number of baselines you save for a project, at any given time you can select only up to three baselines for comparison purposes.

The Baselines feature includes an option for you to specify which baselines you want to use for comparison. The project-level baseline is used for project/activity usage spreadsheets and profiles, as well as earned value calculations.

When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 Professional database, you must have the Edit Project Details Except Costs/Financials project privilege to set the project baseline.

When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 EPPM database, you must have the appropriate project privilege as defined in P6 to set the project baseline.

You can assign primary, secondary, and tertiary baselines. If you do not select a baseline to use, the current project is used by default. Using the administrative preference setting, you can choose which values to use for earned value calculations, either budgeted or planned or at completion.

To help categorize, or track, multiple baselines for a single project, you can assign each baseline a type that reflects its purpose, for example, initial planning baseline, what-if project baseline, or midproject baseline. The administrator defines the available baseline types.

You can restore or update an original or copied baseline.

Baselines do not exist as separate projects that you can access.  To modify a baseline project, you must first unlink it from its current project by restoring it as a separate project. You can then work with this restored baseline project as you would any other project in the EPS.

You can also automatically add new data from the current project to the baseline and modify existing baseline data that has changed in the current project using the Update Baseline feature.

Related Topics

Modify a baseline manually

Update a baseline