Microsoft Project - The Basics - What is a Baseline

What is the Baseline? 

The baseline is the original plan of when the tasks are going to take place as agreed by the stakeholders.

It holds data on when the tasks are going to take place, how long they are going to take, how much work is involved and at what cost



The baseline can be displayed against the current plan, either by showing all the tasks in the same way or also by showing which tasks are currently critical.

The advantages of using a Baseline 

By having this information, when the project actually starts (or changes are considered), comparisons can be made between what is happening now and what was originally agreed.

Once the project is finished, the project plan can be analysed.  This will then help improve future plans, as it will be possible to see which areas of the plan worked as scheduled and which areas didn’t.  Hopefully reasons can be given as to which areas didn’t work as they should.