Baselines, variance, and change orders

[Amy]

I am hoping someone has an easier way to approach this process than I am
currently using.

The scenario: We us project 2007 to track consulting projects. At the
beginning of the project we set a baseline for the work and cost budget and
then enter actual work for each task as the project progresses. We
continually monitor our work variance and cost variance to the baseline.
When we have a change order that increases the budget I manually update the
baseline work and baseline cost to reflect the increase budget in the change
order. This can be a bit of work as the changes don’t automatically roll-up
to the summary tasks but it does give the information we need for updated
variance.

I have tried saving an updated baseline but the other iterations of the
baseline (‘baseline 1’) are not linked to any variance calculations. If I
save over the original baseline, for any tasks that are over budget (actual
work > baseline work and work) then the baseline will not equal the budget
amount.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
AC

 

[Rod Gill]

Save to baseline.

When a variance comes in, use Tools, Tracking, Set Baseline to copy Baseline
to Baseline1 which will become your original budget. You can create a
formula in a Cost custom field if you need it.

To update the Baseline:
Select the new Task(s) with the work for the variance order
Tools, Tracking, Set Baseline,
Select For Selected Tasks
Select relevant rollup baseline options.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[Amy]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the response. By ensuring the variance is equivalent to the
change order I am able to update and roll-up to the summary tasks.

In following the steps your suggest to copy the baseline to baseline 1 it
is copying the current 'work' rather than the baseline work and not
preserving the original budget. Any other suggestions for this?

Thanks,
AC

 

[Rod Gill]

When doing the copy use the Set Interim plan fields to copy from one
baseline to another.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[Amy]

Hi Rob, I am wondering if you can give me some more detail about how the
task updates are supposed to effect the summary task. I am trying to update
a project and getting some strange results.

Scenario:

Task 185 currently has Baseline work 16 hours, baseline cost $2400, actual
work 16 hours, remaining work 16 hours, variance 16 hours. The top level
baseline summary cost is $198,600 and work is 2113 hours.

When I update the base line on that task only and select to update the
summary task my summary level baseline cost decreases to $135,307.5 and hours
to 1448 hours. The baselines on the specific line are updated correctly but
even at one level of summary task up the aren't correct. Any tips/tricks for
me to try?

Thanks, Amy