Baseline Schedule

A baseline schedule is a snapshot of the project programme at the point where it has been agreed, reviewed, and formally approved. From that point forward, it becomes the reference point for all performance reporting. Actual start and finish dates, earned value, float, and forecast completion dates are all measured against the baseline. The baseline should not be changed except through a formal change control process — if it is updated casually whenever the project falls behind, it ceases to be a meaningful reference and performance reporting becomes worthless.

Establishing a good baseline is one of the most important activities in the early stages of a project. The baseline should reflect a schedule that has been resource-loaded, risk-checked, and logic-verified. A baseline that is set too early — before scope is sufficiently defined — will almost certainly require re-baselining, which wastes time and undermines confidence in the project controls function. Equally, a baseline that takes too long to set is also a problem because the project is then running for months without a performance reference.

The most common governance failure around baselines is re-baselining without proper scrutiny. When a project falls behind, there is often pressure to re-baseline the schedule to make the variances disappear rather than to understand and address the underlying performance issues. Good practice is to keep the original baseline intact and show it alongside the current plan and actual progress, so that the full history of slippage is visible. A project that has been re-baselined multiple times should raise a red flag for any reviewer looking at programme performance.