Some project management software tools allow you to take a snapshot of your project baseline. If yours doesn’t, you can still take a baseline by saving a copy of your schedule in a file with the date in the filename.
But how do you know if your project baseline is any good? That’s what we’re going to cover in this article. Just because a project has baselines in place doesn’t mean they’re reliable, realistic, or fit for purpose. Baselines are more than just dates and budgets; they’re the foundation for measuring success.
We’re going to share seven characteristics that make a good project baseline genuinely useful. If you work in an environment where progress and performance are closely monitored (earned value management, anyone?), then this is for you!
1. It reflects agreed scope
The project schedule baseline needs to reflect the currently-agreed scope. That’s important because you can’t measure progress reliably against a moving target.
The baseline should include all the tasks required to complete the deliverables, clearly linked to WBS or control accounts (if you use them). If you’ve got a contract with your client, make sure that all the contractual deliverables are mapped somewhere in the plan.
Scope creep is often a sign the original agreement for the work didn’t capture everything. It is OK to make changes, but do them in a controlled way, getting approval for any implications for changes to the timeline or budget. Then save a new, revised baseline once the change is approved and incorporated so you are tracking to the new reality.
2. It’s logically sequenced and time-phased
We often talk to teams who focus so much on the dates that the other aspects of their schedules get ignored. Schedules also need to include logical dependencies, and task durations. You can add resource forecasts, milestones and fixed constraints. All these items let you check that the time-phased plan is achievable and will deliver the work in line with the resource and cost forecasts. If you’re using an earned value management approach, it allows you to track EV back to the right period.
If your plan isn’t phased appropriately or tasks are disconnected, the baseline loses its value when it comes to forecasting – it’s not doing its job of telling you what’s coming up.
3. It’s built with team input
The best project schedules are built with team input – we’re sure you already know that. Confidence in the plan comes from being involved and in the room when the decisions are being made about dependencies and timelines. A good baseline reflects the input from the people doing the work, not just the project manager or the scheduler.
This is an easy win: simply encourage the team to contribute. They should be sharing durations and risks with you in everyday conversations and that all feeds into the baseline.
4. It includes risk-adjusted estimates
No project is without risk, and we’ve written enough times about risk on this blog. But we still see schedules where the risk is not factored in. Good schedules take account of the known threats and opportunities — even if this happens informally by adding a little extra time to a risky task, or allocating an experienced resource instead of the newbie.
It’s hard to know exactly what level of contingency or management reserve to attach to a project, and it doesn’t have to be perfect by any stretch. The most important thing is that it’s included in your baselined version of the schedule.
5. It’s linked to control accounts and reporting structures
This one is for those of you who use earned value management. In an EVM setting, the baseline should align to the structure used to track performance. In fact, that’s not a bad habit to get into even if you don’t use EVM!
Each part of the schedule should be traceable to a control account or work package so you can measure performance in a way that is meaningful. It also makes it easier to prepare for IBRs and audits because you’ll have so much of the information already to hand.
6. It’s maintainable
A good project baseline should be one that grows with you as the project evolves. That sounds unlikely, doesn’t it? As baselines should be fixed and represent the current expectations.
It might sound like a contradiction, but we all know change happens, and we’ve mentioned that above already. Make sure you have a process for changing the baseline when there is cause to do so (such as an approved change request). There should be a log of when and why a baseline was changed and what changed so you can quickly look back and see the impact it had.
Baselines have to be maintainable because otherwise you’ll end up reporting against a schedule that no one believes in and everyone know isn’t representative of reality.
7. It aligns with funding and contractual expectations
Include your external milestones on the project baseline and any contractual expectations around delivery or resourcing. For example, funding profiles, sources and deadlines, payment schedules or contracted milestones – these are all things that can go into the schedule and be baselined. And it matters if they move!
You can’t deliver work before the funding has been released, you can’t move to the next stage before the client has signed off the work packages, and so on. The baselined milestones can help you make the best decisions about ordering the work and engaging stakeholders.
A good project baseline gives you more than just a starting point for delivery. It gives you control, confidence and credibility. If your schedule feels like it’s lacking, this is the perfect time to revisit it or to engage professional schedulers to help.