Do You Know Enough About Baselining?

In Microsoft Project, a baseline is like a “snapshot” of your project before you begin entering actual progress. Following best practices for baselining is essential to the success of any project, but do you know enough about what types of data are saved in a baseline, where to view this data, and how that all relates to project variance?

Let’s begin with some questions. If you are not able to successfully answer most of the questions below, I think my on-demand webinar, “Best Practices for Baselining and Variance Analysis,” would greatly expand your knowledge about this important topic.

 

  1. How can you save an original baseline in Microsoft Project?
  2. How can you back up a baseline into one of the ten additional sets of Baseline fields?
  3. Which major fields for tasks, resources, and assignments are captured in a baseline?
  4. Which minor fields are captured in the baseline?
  5. What views and tables allow you to see baseline information?
  6. What is variance in Microsoft Project and how does the software calculate variance?
  7. What views and tables allow you to see variance information?
  8. How do you update the baseline after a change control process adds new tasks to your project?
  9. How do you back up your updated baseline into one of the ten additional sets of Baseline fields?
  10. What happens if you delete baselined tasks in Microsoft Project? Hint: Only bad things will happen!
  11. What is the proper way to cancel unneeded tasks that have been baselined?

How did you do? In my webinar, I want to take you on an in-depth tour of the baselining and variance analysis functionality in Microsoft Project.

You will learn the following:

  • Best practices for baselining your project
  • What types of data are saved in a baseline
  • Where to view baseline data
  • Best practices for analyzing project variance
  • Where to view project variance
  • Why you should not delete baselined data in a project schedule

 

Watch my baselining webinar on-demand!

 


Related Content

Webinars (watch for free now!):
Task Planning using Microsoft Project
What’s the value of Schedule Risk Analysis?

Articles:
Levels of Project Scheduling Proficiency
Are You Using the Team Planner View Feature in Microsoft Project?
Resource Leveling: Scheduling vs. Leveling


Next Webinar

Demystifying Custom Reports (Part 1)

Written by Dale Howard
Dale Howard is currently a Senior PPM Consultant with Arch Systems, Inc. His hair and beard have turned white because of using Microsoft's project management tools for more than 20 years. Dale started his career using Microsoft Project 4.0 for Windows 95 and began using Microsoft's PPM tools when they introduced Project Central in 2000. Dale is the co-author of 23 books in Microsoft Project, Project Server, and Project Online. He is currently one 0f 26 Microsoft Project MVPs in the entire world and one of only 4 Project MVPs in the United states.
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