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The project performance is tracked against an integrated set of project baselines that support the achievement of the project’s triple constraint goals and objectives.

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Quick reference

Baseline Management

The project performance is tracked against an integrated set of project baselines that support the achievement of the project’s triple constraint goals and objectives.

When to use

We get what we measure.  But to measure a project, you need to know the expectations for project performance – cost, schedule, and scope.  The project baselines are the “measuring tool” for project performance.  When project planning is complete, the scope, schedule, and cost baselines are established and communicated to project team members and stakeholders.  As the project progresses through the project lifecycle, the actual performance is continually measured against the baseline.  Issues are resolved by the project teams.  Risks are identified and risk resolution activities are incorporated into the baselines.  When required, a project change is requested from the stakeholders, and if approved, the baselines are modified to reflect the new goals, objectives and constraints.

Instructions

Baseline management is an integration and control activity.  A project baseline has three components, the scope baseline, the schedule baseline and the cost (or resource) baseline.  These three are integrally linked.  A change in one baseline inevitably will cause a change in at least one of the other baselines. 

Project Control

The purpose of project control is not to ensure perfect compliance with a project plan; it is to ensure the project goals and objectives are achieved.  The project plan is the project team’s intent for how to achieve the goal and objectives.  The plan is expressed in the project baselines.  Project performance is measured against the baselines in order to determine if the project will still be able to achieve the project goals and objectives.  Variances from expected project performance could be due to underperformance by project team members, an error in the plan, or the consequences of an unforeseen event.  The project manager and core team must consider the variances, the plan, and the project objectives to determine how to react to variances.  When appropriate, the reaction needs to be to modify or change the project baselines.

Project Baselines

The project baselines represent the triple constraint of project management, scope, schedule, and resources.  Some organizations will integrate the baselines into one comprehensive baseline, usually using the Earned Value Management system.  However, most organizations do not have an integrated project management baseline methodology and instead maintain separate baselines for scope (deliverables), schedule, and cost.  In this case the project manager and core team must manually integrate the baselines.  The scope baseline is normally comprised of the scope statement, WBS and WBS dictionary.  The schedule baseline is normally comprised of a milestone chart or Gantt chart.  (My preference is to use a milestone chart with high-level summary tasks in the baseline.)  The cost baseline is normally the project budget, excluding management reserves but including pre-positioned risk mitigation reserves.  Some organizations also include the Core Team membership as an additional resource baseline.  Baselines are controlled documents.  This means changes must be approved by the designated approval authority.  Many organizations will allow the project manager and core team to make minor changes but reserve major changes for approval by stakeholders.  The definition of “major” and “minor” varies from organization to organization.

Definitions

  • Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB): “An approved integrated scope-schedule-cost plan for the project work against which project execution is compared to measure and manage performance. The PMB includes contingency reserve, but excludes management reserve.” PMBOK® Guide
  • Scope Baseline: “The approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and its associated WBS dictionary, that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison.” PMBOK® Guide
  • Schedule Baseline: “The approved version of a schedule model that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.” PMBOK® Guide
  • Cost Baseline: “The approved version of the time-phased project budget, excluding any management reserves, which can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.” PMBOK® Guide

These definitions are taken from the Glossary of the Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Fifth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2013.

  • 00:03 Hi, this is Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 Let's talk about controlling the project baselines.
  • 00:07 The project management body of knowledge,
  • 00:09 the PMBOK Guide, defines the Performance Measurement Baseline as,
  • 00:13 an approved integrated scope-schedule cost plan for the project work against
  • 00:18 which the project execution is compared to measure and manage performance.
  • 00:23 The project measurement baseline includes contingency reserve but
  • 00:27 excludes management reserves.
  • 00:30 For ease of use, I'm going to refer to our performance measurement baseline as
  • 00:34 the approved project plan.
  • 00:36 It integrates all three sides of
  • 00:37 the project management triple constraint triangle.
  • 00:40 As we have stated before, when you change one side of the triangle,
  • 00:43 you must change at least one of the other two.
  • 00:46 Baseline management is how we ensure that the three sides of
  • 00:50 the triangle stay connected.
  • 00:53 This becomes very important as the project leader and
  • 00:55 core team react to risk issues and project changes.
  • 00:59 They're often asking the question, which side of the triangle do
  • 01:02 we miss in order to achieve the goals on the other side?
  • 01:06 The project leader and core team must determine the best overall solution,
  • 01:10 update the baselines, and control the project to the new baselines.
  • 01:14 So let's discuss how project leader and core team members can control the project.
  • 01:19 To control the project you need to have a plan.
  • 01:22 Based upon the plan, we know how much progress we should have made.
  • 01:26 That one's obvious.
  • 01:27 Next we need to know how much progress has actually been made on the project.
  • 01:31 The project leader and
  • 01:32 core team should know this from the status reports at the team meetings.
  • 01:36 When there's a difference between the plan and actual performance of variance,
  • 01:40 the team needs to decide what actions they should take, if any.
  • 01:44 While earned value variance analysis can assist with this, earned value reports
  • 01:48 are only provided once a month, which is too long a delay when there's a problem.
  • 01:53 The status meeting tells the project leader and
  • 01:55 core team what is happening in real time.
  • 01:58 They should use those for triggering the need to make a change in the project plan.
  • 02:02 Based upon the variance,
  • 02:03 the team should forecast the impact on the end of the project.
  • 02:07 Many times, it turns out that the variance is not significant, and
  • 02:10 no change is needed to the project baselines.
  • 02:13 But sometimes, there is a change needed.
  • 02:16 Before I make the final decision on how to respond to the variance,
  • 02:20 I will assess the risk register.
  • 02:21 I'll check for any of the risk triggers being affected by the variance.
  • 02:25 I will also consider if there's a new risk to be added to the risk
  • 02:28 register because what has just occurred.
  • 02:30 If so, follow your risk management processes.
  • 02:34 Now finally, I can determine if a change is needed to the baseline.
  • 02:37 If so, prepare a project change request, and
  • 02:40 follow your organization's practices for how changes are reviewed and approved.
  • 02:46 Let's put baselines in context.
  • 02:48 The goal of the baseline is not to create a perfect project plan
  • 02:51 that never requires changes or updates.
  • 02:53 The goal is to achieve the project objective as stated in
  • 02:56 the project charter.
  • 02:58 These objectives typically includes scope, schedule and budget goals.
  • 03:02 The baselines assist the project team to communicate and
  • 03:05 control project activities to ensure the goals are achieved.
  • 03:09 Don't become so locked into a plan that you refuse to change,
  • 03:12 when it can no longer deliver the project objectives.
  • 03:16 We started this module with a PMBOK definition of the performance
  • 03:19 measurement baseline.
  • 03:21 What I'm referring to as the approved project plan.
  • 03:24 That definition said it was an integrated baseline of scope, schedule, and budget.
  • 03:29 The PMBOK goes further to define these baselines in more detail.
  • 03:32 If you're planning on sitting for the PMP exam, you should be familiar with these.
  • 03:37 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide, defines the scope
  • 03:41 baseline as the approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure,
  • 03:45 and its associated WBS dictionary, that can be changed only through
  • 03:49 formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison.
  • 03:54 So, this baseline is found in the scope planning documents.
  • 03:57 I normally only place the scope statement and
  • 03:59 a high level WBS under revision control, so as to allow the project leader and
  • 04:04 core team a little bit of flexibility in detail task planning.
  • 04:08 The PMBOK defines a schedule baseline as,
  • 04:10 the approved version of a schedule model that can be changed only through formal
  • 04:14 change control procedures and used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
  • 04:20 The definition does not state which schedule tool or
  • 04:22 model you should baseline.
  • 04:24 I recommend baselining the milestone chart.
  • 04:27 I don't want to process a change request every time we
  • 04:30 make a minor change to the Gantt chart or network diagram.
  • 04:33 Now on a large complex project,
  • 04:35 you may also want to baseline a high level Gantt chart of summary tasks only.
  • 04:40 This will help to communicate to everyone the types of activities that
  • 04:43 are occurring.
  • 04:45 The PMBOK defines the Cost Baseline as, the approved version of
  • 04:48 the time-phased project budget, excluding any management reserve,
  • 04:52 which can be changed only through formal change control procedures and
  • 04:55 is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
  • 04:59 In addition to the budget, I think a more important baseline to track for
  • 05:03 resources is the manpower assignment of people to the team.
  • 05:06 But this is the one that the PMBOK focuses on.
  • 05:09 Of course when working with the earned value management,
  • 05:11 the planned value is the cost base line.
  • 05:14 Once again be careful putting this into too much detail, or
  • 05:18 you will be constantly making changes for minor schedule reasons.
  • 05:22 Regardless of which baseline you're controlling, and
  • 05:24 the level of detail, make sure that they support the project objectives.
  • 05:28 And when it's time to change them,
  • 05:30 follow your organization’s project change control process.

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