P6 EPPM Baseline Update
When a Primavera P6 EPPM (Enterprise Project Portfolio Management) baselined and progressed schedule requires additional scope, how do you include new activities in its baseline? Let’s take a look.
The baseline is a static copy of the schedule that serves as a ruler for measuring progress. You can make an existing project a linked baseline of your current schedule. More commonly, you can take a picture of your project in time and make that the baseline. Baselines should not change without going through a formal change control process. When a scope addition on a progressed project is approved, these new tasks can be included in the existing baseline using the Update Baseline feature in P6 EPPM.
This article provides a quick tip to include additional scope in a P6 EPPM baseline update.
Our demonstration schedule in Figure 1 has a scope addition, a New Activity W1082.
Figure 1
However, New Activity W1082 is missing BL Project Start and BL Project Finish dates, and no Gantt chart (yellow) baseline bar exists.
We need to include this New Activity in the current baseline for our schedule. We proceed by first checking what baseline is assigned as the Project Baseline, Figure 2.
Figure 2
Next, we click Update Baseline, Figure3.
Figure 3
We toggle on “Add new activities and activity data (except actuals)” in the Update Baseline dialog box, Figure 4, and then click Update.
Figure 4
Click OK when the View Service Status dialog appears, Figure 5.
Figure 5
Click the Welcome | View Service Status, Figure 6.
Figure 6
Confirm Update Baseline service is complete, Figure 7.
Figure 7
The Update Baseline service has been completed. Figure 8 displays the resulting schedule with New Activity, including baseline fields and Gantt chart baseline bar.
Figure 8
Summary
Your organization should have a schedule change control process to address scope additions to a progressed schedule. Always follow your company’s change control process. When you must add approved scope to a progressed schedule, the Update Baseline tool in P6 EPPM allows you to add tasks to an existing baseline. In this way, you can add minor additions to the current baseline and track your project’s performance on the total scope of your modified project.