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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

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.  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

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.  Baseline management is an integration and control activity. Risks are identified and risk resolution activities are incorporated into the baselines.  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 under-performance or over-performance 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 or budget.  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): “Integrated scope, schedule, and cost baselines used for comparison to manage, measure, and control project execution.” 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 to actual results.” 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) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017.

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  • 00:00 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen, let's talk some more about controlling project baselines.
  • 00:00 >> The Project Management Body of Knowledge,
  • 00:06 the PMBOK guide defines performance measurement baseline as.
  • 00:15 Integrated scope, schedule and cost baselines used for comparison to manage,
  • 00:20 measure and control project execution.
  • 00:23 A few observations, the project plan is integrated, when one side of the project
  • 00:27 schedule resource triangle change, it will likely change at least one other side.
  • 00:33 When you manage, measure and control you want to ensure the plan you're using as
  • 00:37 a baseline and reference is as accurate as possible.
  • 00:40 Otherwise any conclusions that you reach about the project performance
  • 00:43 are in doubt.
  • 00:45 And in particular, there is a challenge when managing, measuring and
  • 00:49 controlling to know what type of response is needed.
  • 00:53 When a problem arises the project manager is inevitably faced with a dilemma,
  • 00:58 which side of the triangle do we miss in order to achieve the goals or
  • 01:02 objectives on the other two sides.
  • 01:04 The project leader and core team must determine the best overall solution,
  • 01:05 update the baseline and control the project to that new baseline.
  • 01:05 Let me put baselines in context.
  • 01:06 The goal of a baseline and predictive project
  • 01:12 is not to create a perfect project plan
  • 01:17 that never requires changes or updates.
  • 01:23 The goal is to achieve the project objectives as stated in the project
  • 01:26 charter.
  • 01:28 Those objectives typically include scope, schedule and budget goals.
  • 01:32 The baseline assists the project team to communicate and
  • 01:35 control project activities to ensure that the goals are achieved.
  • 01:39 But don't become so locked into the plan that you refuse to
  • 01:43 change it when it no longer delivers the project objective.
  • 01:47 The goal isn't to have a perfect plan it's to get the project objective.
  • 01:52 We started this module with a PMBOK definition on the performance measurement
  • 01:56 baseline, what I'm referring to as the approved project plan.
  • 01:59 That definition said it was an integrated baseline in scope, schedule and budget.
  • 02:04 The PMBOK does go further to define those baselines in more detail.
  • 02:08 If you're planing to sit for the PMP exam, you should be familiar with these.
  • 02:12 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK guide,
  • 02:15 defined scope baseline as.
  • 02:16 The approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure and
  • 02:21 its associated WBS dictionary.
  • 02:23 That can be changed only through formal change control procedures and
  • 02:27 is used as the basis for comparison to actual results.
  • 02:31 So this baseline is found in the scope planning documents.
  • 02:35 I normally only place the scope statement and
  • 02:37 a high level WBS under baseline control.
  • 02:40 So as to allow the project leader and
  • 02:42 core team a little bit of flexibility in detailed tasks.
  • 02:46 The PMBOK defines the schedule baseline as the approved version of a schedule model
  • 02:50 that can be changed using formal change control procedures.
  • 02:53 And is used as the basis for comparison to actual results.
  • 02:58 This definition does not state which schedule tool or
  • 03:00 model you should baseline.
  • 03:03 I recommend baselining the milestone chart.
  • 03:05 I don't want the process change requests every time we make a minor change
  • 03:09 on the Gantt chart or network diagram.
  • 03:12 The PMBOK guide further defines cost baseline as the approved version
  • 03:17 of the time-phased project budget, excluding any management reserves.
  • 03:22 Which can be changed only through formal change control procedures.
  • 03:24 And is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
  • 03:25 In addition to budget I think an important baseline to track for
  • 03:30 resources is a manpower and assignment of people to the team.
  • 03:36 But this is the one that the PMBOK focuses on.
  • 03:38 Of course, when working with earned value management,
  • 03:41 the planned value is the cost baseline.
  • 03:44 So let's discuss how the project leader and
  • 03:46 core team control the project with baselines.
  • 03:49 To control the project you need to have a plan.
  • 03:51 Using the baseline plan we've created we know how much progress should have been
  • 03:55 made, that one's obvious.
  • 03:58 Next we need to know how much progress has actually been made on the project.
  • 04:01 The project leader and core team should know this from their status reports at
  • 04:05 the team pulsing meetings.
  • 04:07 When there is a difference between the plan and the actual performance of
  • 04:12 variance, the team needs to decide what actions they should take, if any.
  • 04:17 Based upon the variance,
  • 04:18 the team forecasts the impact on the overall project objectives.
  • 04:22 Many times it turns out that the variance is not significant and
  • 04:25 no changes needed to the project baselines but sometimes it does.
  • 04:30 Before I make the final decision on how to respond
  • 04:33 to the variances I will reassess the risk register.
  • 04:36 I'll check if any of the risk triggers have been affected by the variance.
  • 04:40 I'll also consider if there is a new risk to be added to the risk register,
  • 04:44 because what has just occurred.
  • 04:46 If so, follow your risk management processes.
  • 04:49 Now finally, I can determine if a change is needed to the baselines.
  • 04:53 If so, prepare a project change request and
  • 04:55 follow your organization's practice for how changes are reviewed and approved.
  • 05:00 >> Regardless of which baselines you're controlling and the level of detail,
  • 05:04 make sure they support the project objectives.
  • 05:07 Also, when it's time to change,
  • 05:08 then follow your organization's project change control process.

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