It’s your first Integrated Baseline Review (IBR) and it feels like you’re drowning in prep checklists and data validation meetings. Don’t worry, you’re not alone! The first time you go through the IBR process it can be daunting – but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve helped hundreds of project teams navigate IBRs.
If you’re a project manager, control account manager (CAM), or a PMO lead facing into your first Integrated Baseline Review, this is for you. Below, we’ll take you through three key questions to focus on to make sure you’re asking the right strategic questions to help you prepare in the very best way.
Question 1: Does our baseline reflect reality?
The IBR is about verifying that the baseline plan is achievable and credible, not just tidy and complete. Here are some things to check to make sure your baseline reflects the reality of your project:
- Is the schedule logic reasonable? Look for excessive constraints, circular logic, or unrealistic durations.
- Does the cost baseline align with the work? Make sure control accounts are mapped appropriately and resources are time-phased. Walk through a control account from start to finish and ask yourself if you can defend it as realistic. If not, spot check them all!
- Are assumptions documented and defensible? Update your assumptions log and check in with the team.
- Do tasks and deliverables match the statement of work? Run through the statement of work to make sure nothing is missing.
If the baseline doesn’t reflect reality, the IBR team will find disconnects between scope, schedule and cost. It puts you in the position of having to explain the discrepancies and apply last-minute fixes instead of discussing how the plan gives you a strong basis for project success.
Question 2: Can every CAM explain their part of the plan?
It’s not just the project manager who is interviewed by the IBR team. A major focus of an IBR is interviewing CAMs and asking them to speak confidently about their work packages. They need to be able to explain their part of the plan, and also the ‘why’ behind the earned value measures that are being used to track success.
Talk to the CAMs and build confidence internally so that they know what to expect from the interview and how to talk about their areas. Start by finding out:
- Do CAMs know what’s in their control accounts?
- Can they explain the earned value approach (e.g. how they’ll claim value)?
- Do they understand key risks and mitigations?
- Are they ready to explain any variances or re-planning activity?
If they can’t answer those questions, the IBR reviewers would be within their rights to question whether the team really is in control of delivery. After all, if the project were under control, those questions would be easy to answer. As a result, you might also find your baseline questioned because it’s hard to have a credible baseline if the people who contributed to it can’t defend their part of the work as realistic and manageable.
However, it’s not the CAMs fault if they aren’t prepared – often they will have never been through the process before and don’t know what to expect. We find that all roles on the team, from senior leadership to CAMs, benefit from having a mock IBR or practice Q&A session to rehearse the answers and build confidence in what to expect on the day.
You can also provide talking points or a crib sheet for each CAM, or ask your consultants to support you with that if it is your first IBR. Buddy up CAMs and invite them to peer review each other to help develop their answers and spot weak spots in how they respond. If you can’t explain it adequately to a colleague, you won’t be able to explain it adequately to an external IBR assessor.
Question 3: Have we built in traceability and transparency?
Reviewers want to see not just the baseline but how you got there, and how you’ll manage changes going forward. You’ll need to be able to evidence clear mapping between the work breakdown structure (WBS), schedule, and cost accounts, risk assessments to back up your risk log and a configuration management process that is actually used.
It’s also helpful to make sure that everyone understands how to version control documentation, and that your key documents (WBS Dictionary, work authorisations, change notifications) are controlled appropriately.
Traceability goes beyond version control numbers though. If an assessor asks about a number or a task on the plan, could you trace it back to the estimate or requirement? The configuration management process is also important to communicate and evidence who approved what when.
If that all sounds daunting, it’s not meant to be! It’s about having evidence to explain and justify. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be consciously done through the correct process. When the time comes for the IBR, you can create IBR pack with key evidence documents and version history to demonstrate traceability (a shared folder will do).
Before your first Integrated Baseline Review, these three questions will tell you more about your real readiness than any checklist. Although checklists also serve their purpose! Everything we’ve talked about above leads on to having a plan that is approved and owned by the right people.