How to analyze project progress against forecasts in Microsoft Project

A baseline is the key to carrying out a project analysis, and therefore comparing the current situation with the expected one. 

When you set a forecast in Project (you can set up to 11), the program takes a snapshot of your schedule and cost values, which you can then use to compare the current values ​​to the ones you originally planned. 

What can you do with Project baselines? 

And how do you view them when you have more than one?

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

Save more than one baseline it is useful to do project analysis, and is useful in several situations. Suppose you incorporate a major change request into your project plan. Keeping the original baseline is a good idea, especially when you want to answer questions from stakeholders about why the big difference compared to the original dates and costs. At the same time, you can use the new forecast with the change request to track the performance of the plan with the change request in place.

You may need one baseline additional when a project experiences other types of changes: stakeholders significantly increase or decrease the scope of the project, or a higher priority project temporarily puts yours on hold. The original baselines no longer produce significant variances, so a new forecast is needed to reflect the revised schedule and costs.

More baseline they can also help document trends over time. Let's say your project has fallen behind schedule and you implement a recovery strategy. You can keep the baseline original, but set a new one using the values ​​in effect before starting the restore. This way, you can compare the original variances to the recovery variances to see if course correction helps. Another way to evaluate trends is to add baselines at key points in a project, such as in each fiscal quarter or perhaps at the end of each phase.

Setting more baseline

If you intend to use more baseline, it's a good idea to archive one second copy of baseline original, for example, in the fields Baseline 1. This way, you have a copy of the baseline original for posterity. At the same time, you can keep your latest prediction in the fields Baseline di Project, so that it's easy to see the variances from your most recent baseline in the Pre Variance fieldsdefinite.

Here's how to set multiple baselines while easily tracking variances for the most recent one:

1. Go to the Schedule section of the Project tab and choose Set Forecast –> Set Forecast. The Setup dialog opens baseline.
2. In the “Set baseline“, save the first baseline by choosing Baseline1.
3. Make sure the “Entire project” option is selected. This option saves the base values ​​for the entire project, which is what you want the first time.
4. Click OK. Project stores the current start, end, duration, effort, and cost values ​​in the corresponding fields, such as Expected Start1, Expected Finish1, Expected Duration1, Expected Work1, and Expected Cost1.
5. Immediately repeat steps 1 to 4 to save the baseline original a second time, but this time like baseline.

When the Setup dialog opens baseline after saving at least one baseline, the “Set baseline” shows the last saved date for the baseline. For example, baselines that have been set have “(last saved on mm/dd/yy)” added to the end of their names, where mm/dd/yy is the last saved date for that baseline.

If you try to set a baseline that has already been saved, Project warns you that the baseline has been used and asks if you want to overwrite it. Click Yes to overwrite the existing values ​​of the baseline (for example, if you have used all 11 baselines and want to reuse an older one). If you don't want to override it, click No then in the Setup dialog box baseline, select one baseline different.

When you're ready to save another baseline, here's what you do:

1. In the Schedule section of the Project tab, select Set Forecast –>Set Forecast.
2. In the “Set baseline“, choose Baseline2 to permanently save the second one baseline. Make sure “Entire Project” is selected, then click OK.
3. Save again immediately the current project schedule as Baseline. In this way, Variance fields such as Starting Variance, Ending Variance, and Cost Variance show the variances between the current values ​​and those of the baseline most recent.

Note: For each additional forecast, save the project schedule once as a forecast and once as a subsequent blank forecast.

Viewing multiple baselines

When you want to compare your current progress with the baseline newer, the Gantt Tracking view is perfect. Shows colored task bars for the current schedule above gray task bars for expected start and finish dates.

However, if you save more than one baseline, you may want to view them at the same time so you can compare the performance of one to the next. The multiple baseline Gantt view shows different colored activity bars for Baseline, Baseline 1, and Baseline 2. For this view, in the Activity Views section of the View tab, choose More Views -> More Views. In the More Views dialog box, double-click Multiple Baselines Gantt. More Gantt baselines show task bars solo for Baseline, Baseline1 and Baseline2. Does not display task bars for the current schedule.

To view different baseline or multiple baselines, you can change the view in several ways. From the ribbon you can view any baseline desired in any Gantt chart view. Display the Gantt chart view you want, and then choose the Format tab. In the Bar Styles section, click the down arrow baseline, then choose the baseline you want to view. For example, if you view the Tracking Gantt view, by defaultdefinita uses Baseline for basic activity bars. However, if you choose Baseline2 in the Baseline Bar Styles menu on the Format tab, the base task bars reflect the Baseline2 dates.

But what if you want a view to show activity bars from Baseline1 to Baseline4 to evaluate trends over time? If so, you can change the definition of vision to do just that.

1. Copy the Gantt view of multiple baselines and name it as FourBaselines. (With the multi-baseline Gantt view displayed, in the Task Views section of the View tab, choose More Views ->More Views. In the More Views dialog box, click Copy, type a new name in the Name box, and then click click OK. Back in the More Views dialog box, click Close.
2. In Gantt Chart Tools | On the Format tab, in the Bar Styles section, click Format ->Bar Styles. The Bar Styles dialog opens.
3. Select the row for the taskbar you want to duplicate (for example, Baseline2), then click Cut Row.
4. Before you do anything else, click Paste Row to insert the cut row where it originally was.
5. Select the row below where you want to insert the copied row, then click Paste Row again. Project inserts another copy of the row immediately above the selected row.
6. Change the Name, From, and To cells of the new row to match the baseline that you want to show. For example, to display Baseline3, change the name to include Baseline3, then, in the From and To cells, choose Baseline3 Start and Baseline3 End, respectively.
7. On the Bars tab in the lower half of the Bar Styles dialog box, choose the shape and color you want for the bar. Baseline1, Baseline2, and Baseline3 already use red, blue, and green, so choose a color like teal, orange, or purple. In the Shape box, choose a narrow top, center, or bottom bar.
8. If you include more than three baselines in your multiple baseline Gantt view, you must add a second taskbar row to the view. In the Bar Styles dialog box, in the Taskbar Row cell, type 2 to tell Project to position the taskbar of the baseline on a second row in the Gantt chart.
9. Repeat steps 3 through 8 to create activity bars for split, milestone, and summary activities for forecasting.

Here's what they look like definitions of bar styles when you add another baseline at the sight:

And here's what the view looks like with more than three sets of bars in the baseline.

And the interim plans?

The Set Forecast dialog box has a second option: “Set Interim Plan.” Unlike the project forecasts, temporary plans they only save the start and end dates, not the duration, costs and work. Tentative plans are a holdover from previous versions of Project, when the program offered only a baseline.

Even with the 11 baselines Project now offers, tentative plans could come in handy. If you import a project schedule from Project 2002 and earlier (this may happen), any additional information about the forecast ends up in the interim plan fields (Start1/End1 through Start10/End10). You can copy this data from the Start and End fields of the interim plan (Start2/End2, for example) into forecast fields such as Baseline2. You can also save interim plans as partial forecasts among your saved full forecasts.

FAQ

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Ercole Palmeri