One of the PM at my organization asked me about the project baseline in MPP. It seems most of the project managers who use MPP use it as an excel workbook, one copy per project to maintain all the task and their status. If something changes, the plan changes and we save it as a copy of original (something like versioning). What is funnier is that people try to “diff” using CVS tools to find the changes in schedules.
One thing is sure, people use very limited features of MS MPP. I’ll try to educate them by “how to” on MPP. Here is one on saving a project baseline:
What is project baseline: Baseline is the term used for original (or approved updates) of the project plan. Baseline values are used to track progress against the plan.
How to save baseline in MS MPP:
1. On the project guide toolbar, click the “Track” button.
2. On the Track pane, click the save a baseline plan to compare with later versions link.
3. Click the save baseline button. MPP will save the baseline.
How to use the saved baseline in MS MPP:
On the view menu, click Table: Summary, and choose Variance to see the comparison with baseline. There is limit to number of baselines in one project file, however you may not require to compare more than 2-3 baselines at given point of time.
Posts
