Change the ‘project statistics’ dialogue to show baseline 2 inform

[George Furnell]

Thanks for taking the time to read.

I have saved my project baseline 2, but when I now view the ‘project
statistics’ dialogue (found on the menu ‘Project/Project Information’), it
shows the info for baseline 1. My question is ‘how can I change this to show
baseline 2’s information?

Kind regards
George

 

[Steve House]

Actually it shows Baseline "0", the "real" baseline. There's just plain
Baseline ('Baseline Zero') and then there's Baselines 1 thru 10, for a total
of 11. There's no way I'm aware of to switch the field used in that dialog
box but you can get the effect of it if you really need to. Under "Save
Interim Plan" there's the ability to copy the data set from any of the
baseline "slots" into any of the other baseline slots. If you really need
to see baseline 2 in the statistics dialog, just use the Save Interim Plan
tool to take the current Baseline, save it into a vacant baseline slot to
preserve it, and then take and copy Baseline 2 into Baseline, overwriting
the old data in the process.

I'm not sure why you want to do this, though. I think of Baseline 1 thru 10
as being there to give you an audit trail of changes that affect the
baseline (ie, scope changes) but are really just there more for historical
curiosity, lessons learned, and CYA than anything else. The just plain
vanilla "Baseline" entry represents the plan that you're presently working
and all progress measurements and comparisons should reference against that
one data set only. What difference does it make, what useful information do
we gain. to see we're 2 weeks behind the plan as it we thought it was going
to be before the customer insisted on adding a set of changes to the
product? We're now working according to the plan AFTER those changes were
included and we need to be measuring progress against that baseline, not the
baseline of the plan we thought we were going to work before the customer
negotiated a change to the contract.

 

[George Furnell]

Steve, I get your point about working on the latest baseline (i.e. the real
baseline) in the ‘project statistics screen’. But it is still important for
me to keep a copy of the ‘first baseline’ we created, since our original
proposal (budget) was created on baseline 0, so I have a feeling will have to
report on variance between the latest agreed baseline (1) and the original 0.

I also noticed that the report ‘Project summary’ also only displays info
for baseline 0, i.e. I have the same problem with the report as with the
‘project statistics’ dialogue.

Kind regard

 

[Steve House]

Actually I think I'd recommend reversing the roles of the various baseline
slots you're using. The just plain Baseline (Baseline 0) should represent
the plan that you're actually working. When you finished one of the
iterations of the final approval process you probably saved that plan's
baseline. Were it me, the first draft submitted would go into Baseline 1,
the second draft submitted into Baseline 2, and so forth so the highest
number slot occupied would represent the last iteration before final
approval. Once things are signed and delivered and you finally have an
agreed-upon plan, a final "Save Baseline" pass would load that plan's data
into the plain Baseline slot for tracking and comparison purposes.
Baseline's 1 thru 10 would then hold an audit trail of the sequence of
proposed plans submitted prior to final approval. (The Interim Plan slots
might be used to store the audit trail of the final few passes in the
interations leading up to the first "submitted for approuval" plan. Interim
Plan postions 1, 2, and 3 are also used by the system to store Likely, Best
Case, and Worst Case scenarios if you're using Project's PERT tools)

 

[George Furnell]

Thanks Steve, you have convinced me.
Kind regards
George