The purpose of this article is to explain and demonstrate proper use of the Baselining tool to maintain a Master Schedule from the beginning of the project to the end.
In P6 Enterprise, we can now create our master schedule and use that same schedule from the beginning to the end of the project. This method will keep our EPS clean and uncluttered. The only time we should make copy of our current project schedule is to do a what-if analysis and the best method to accomplish this is using the reflection tool so that an update to the master schedule from the what-if analysis can be accomplished easily and quickly. I’ll write more on this in a future article.
4 Reasons why Baselines are better than Schedule Copies
You can maintain an unlimited number of baselines for a project.
- The baseline does not appear in the EPS. When you copy and paste a project in the EPS you are only making a copy of the current project, none of the baselines are copied during the copy process unless you designate them to be copied. Therefore when you make a copy of the current project and paste it in the EPS anyone that has access to the EPS structure can also see the copy.
- After making many copies in the EPS along with all the other projects in the organization the EPS can get cluttered.
- Only those that have access to the project can have access to the backup copy baselines.
- Backup baselines can easily be restored for viewing or they can be selected as one of the three baselines to compare to the current project. For information on restoring a baseline see HELP under Maintain Baselines. After creating a baseline, you can set a baseline as the project, primary, secondary, or tertiary baseline in the Assign
Assigning Baselines to Projects
Use the Assign Baselines dialog box to designate the current project or an existing baseline as the project, primary, secondary, or tertiary baseline. The project baseline is always used to summarize a project. The Project or Primary Baseline can be designated as the basis for calculating earned value (based on a setting in the Settings tab of Project Details). The primary, secondary, and tertiary baselines are user-defined baselines used to compare projects, develop reports, and compare specific activity data elements.
To choose which baseline to use as the Project baseline or the User Baselines:
- Choose Project > Assign Baselines. If you have more than one project open at a time, in the Project field.
- Select the project to which you want to assign a project baseline.
- In the Project Baseline field, select the desired baseline or the current project.
- If no baseline is designated as active, the current project is used as the baseline project.
- You can assign only one project baseline to a project and you must have the appropriate security privileges to select the project baseline.
This article was written by Ken Wagner MPM, PMP, who has thirty plus years of executive level experience in program and project management, working in state and federal government, defense and commercial industries and served in the US Navy as a Submarine Lieutenant Commander. Ken teaches a college level Project Management course in Seattle and is a Senior Oracle Primavera Technical Consultant and Oracle certified Enterprise Portfolio Implementation Specialist for the implementation of Project Management Offices. His role with Cassell Consulting brings that experience to clients implementing and utilizing Oracle Primavera, and Project Management Best Practices and Standards.
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