Manage baseline plans

A baseline plan is a listing of schedule tasks, dependencies, and estimated dates that demonstrates the intent of a project.

Once the preliminary project schedule has been finalized, it is good practice to set the initial baseline, so that the actual progress can be compared against the original baseline plan.

A project can have multiple baseline plans, so that you can explore different scenarios that show the effect that a change would have on the schedule. You can set any baseline plan as the current plan of the project at any time. Reports are available to compare two baseline plans and show the differences.

You cannot create, modify, or delete baselines if you are viewing a snapshot. For more information about snapshots, see Project schedule snapshots and savepoints.

You can add, edit, delete, set the baseline values, and update the status of a baseline plan in the Baseline Plan dialog.

Create a baseline plan

In Project Management, open a project.

The Project dialog opens.
Click Project Schedule.

The Project Schedule dialog opens.
Go to the Baseline Plan tab.
Click New Baseline.
The Baseline Plan dialog opens.
Description: Type a description for the baseline plan.
The first baseline plan will automatically be named as Initial Baseline, but you can modify the name according to your needs.
Is Current Baseline Plan: Select if you want to use the baseline plan as the current baseline plan
Include on Production Schedule: Select if you want to assign resources to the baseline plan and include the baseline plan in the production schedule
If you do not want the baseline plan to be shown in the production schedule and resource capacity, clear the Include on Production Schedule checkbox. For example, this might be the case if the production schedule is created only for quoting.
Click Add.

The baseline is created. You can now further modify its properties.

Modify the remaining baseline properties.


Option	Description
Calendar	The calendar that determines the working days and nonworking days in the project Select a calendar in the list. To modify the available calendars, go to Maintenance > Project Management > Schedule Calendars.
Assembly Quantity	The total number of assemblies in the project. This value is automatically updated when you update the status of the project schedule. Type in the total number of assemblies.
Part Quantity	The total number of parts in the project. This value is automatically updated when you update the status of the project schedule. Type in the total number of parts.
Weight	The total weight of the materials in the project. This value is automatically updated when you update the status of the project schedule. Type in the total weight.
Breakdown Field (1–5)	To define the available breakdown levels, select values in the lists. For example, to enable categories as the breakdown level below lots, select Category in the Breakdown Field 3 list. You can set default project breakdown levels and fields, see Modify the project schedule settings.

Click Save.

Set baseline

When you have set a preliminary project schedule, you can set that as the initial baseline.

On the Baseline Plan tab, click Set Baseline.
In the confirmation dialog, click Yes to set the baseline values.

The baseline is saved, and the baseline dates update in the blank columns.

Change the current baseline plan

On the Baseline Plan tab, click the arrow on the right side of the Select a Baseline Plan field, and select the desired baseline in the list.

The new baseline plan is displayed in the Project Schedule dialog.

View the total values and breakdown information of the project

To display the total values of the project, on the Baseline Plan tab, click the arrow on the left side of Summary Totals.
To display the breakdown information of a task, select a task on Baseline Plan tab, and the click the arrow on the left side of Breakdown Summary.

The number of breakdown items and the average assembly quantity, part quantity, and weight are displayed for the selected task.
To select if actual total values, baseline total values, or both are displayed for the totals and the breakdown summary, click the arrow on the right side of the Show Totals list, and select an option in the list.

Modify a baseline plan

On the Baseline Plan tab, click Baseline Properties.
In the Baseline Plan dialog, modify the baseline plan properties.
Click Save to save the changes.

Delete a baseline plan

Deleting a baseline plan is permanent and cannot be undone.

Note: You need to have more than one baseline to delete one.

On the Baseline Plan tab, click the baseline plan that you want to delete.
Click Delete Baseline.
In the confirmation dialog, click Yes to permanently delete the baseline.