Unexpected Baseline Date Changes

[M Colodzin]

I'm the project scheduler on a very large project which has a project
schedule w/nearly 2000 lines. We've experienced several instances where
baseline dates have changed but we have not re-baselined the schedule or
those particular tasks.

We have set baselines on newly added tasks (using the Tools -> Tracking ->
Save Baseline -> Selected Tasks. Initially we put checks in the boxes for
"To All Summary Tasks" and "From Subtsks into Selected Summary Task(s)",
however, we have since unchecked those two boxes and now only baseline
specific tasks and no summary tasks.

Since my colleague and I are the only two people with write access to the
..mpp file and we know we didn't touch the affected tasks, it seems that these
dates are changing on their own.

Does anyone have any insight into what might be causing the changes in the
baseline dates of tasks we have not selected for re-baselining.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

This "shouldn't" be happening.
One way to verify if it is human error or something else would be to copy
the baseline dates into some of the spare date fields.
Then you can go back and check if those are different from the baseline.

You are saving to the same baseline aren't you? There are 11 baselines
available.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[M Colodzin]

Hi Jack,

Thanks for your quick resopnse.

Yes, when I first noticed this problem I copied the baseline to Baseline10
and am using that for comparison purposes. From what I can tell, it is not
human error. There are a few cases where I know with certainty that the
tasks have not been touched at all, yet the baseline dates have changed.
This appears to be happening more frequently with the Baseline Finish than
Baseline Start, but I've seen it on both.

I'm pretty familiar with project and know this "shouldn't" happen, yet it
does seem to be happening without human intervention.

Any thoughts?
--
Michelle Colodzin, PMP

This "shouldn't" be happening.
One way to verify if it is human error or something else would be to copy
the baseline dates into some of the spare date fields.
Then you can go back and check if those are different from the baseline.

You are saving to the same baseline aren't you? There are 11 baselines
available.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[Marc Soester [MVP]]

Hi Michelle,

I have not heard that Baseline Dates change by themselfs. There are a couple
of options that may cause a change:
1. manually changing baselines. As you mentioned you are sure that this did
not occur.
2. VBA code. Since this is a big mpp file, do you have any Visual Basic Code
running that may cause the rebaselining?
3. Access by someone else. You mentioned that you are the only one with read
access. Could it be that someone else is able to change them without your
knowledge?

Is there any consitency to the problem or does it appear sporadically? In
your situation I would recommend to copy the latest version to a different
place and see if the change occurs in both files. this at least will allow
you to ensure that it is a file related issue and not a "user" related issue.
Anyway, I hope this will help you find a resolution to your issue