{"id":4038,"date":"2012-08-28T11:03:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T16:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/?p=4038"},"modified":"2024-08-23T15:20:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T20:20:47","slug":"baselines-dont-leave-planning-without-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/baselines-dont-leave-planning-without-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Baselines \u2013 Don\u2019t Leave Planning Without Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Baseline\"When I ask project managers<\/a> what a baseline is and why it\u2019s important, they tell me that it is an approved starting point against which project performance is measured.<\/p>\n

They are right, of course.\u00a0 But when I ask them if they use baselines, as often as not, I find that baselining is a fundamental project management practice that is neglected by many project managers and organizations.<\/p>\n

Lack of good project discipline or good tools probably explains why many projects don\u2019t get baselined.\u00a0 Understanding project performance and providing input into lessons learned are two obvious reasons for utilizing baselines.<\/p>\n

One perspective about baselines, however, sheds light both on why it is often not done and why it should be.<\/p>\n

As the approved starting points, baselines are the definitions of cost, time, and scope against which the project will be measured and evaluated.\u00a0 The source of consternation for many is that those definitions will change. Planning for most projects is a process of progressive elaboration.\u00a0 Sometimes it feels like we could plan forever, because we are constantly encountering new information, gaining new understanding, even encountering new stakeholders.<\/p>\n

So if a baseline or snapshot of the plan is what we\u2019re going to measure against, then it\u2019s pretty tempting to wait just a bit longer so we have a little more information and feel a little more certain about the definition of those project objectives.\u00a0 That way we will be more likely to meet them and less likely to need to change them.<\/p>\n

But consider this: The purpose of a baseline is as much about recognizing<\/em> change as it is about preventing it.\u00a0 In the absence of a baseline, how do we even know if what people are asking for is different than what we\u2019ve already done or planned?<\/p>\n

Why, for example, do scopes creep?\u00a0 Often it\u2019s because they were never baselined in the first place. How is it that we get into these battles with stakeholders about whether or not what they\u2019re asking for is different than what they\u2019ve already asked for?\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because we don\u2019t have anything to compare it to!<\/p>\n

Baselines enable us to recognize change and respond appropriately.\u00a0 In order to control the project, we need to know the relative size of a change request or deviation from the plan baseline.\u00a0 Is it small?\u00a0 If so, then maybe we can make some adjustments to how we\u2019re executing to bring ourselves into alignment with the plan.\u00a0 Is it substantial?\u00a0 If so, then we know to go through a process to get approval as to whether or not we will update the baseline and manage to the new plan.<\/p>\n

But without something against which to compare changes, we are really guessing as to whether or not it\u2019s even a change.\u00a0\u00a0That is likely to result in a creepy scope and a project manager with very little in the way of negotiating leverage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not enough to just monitor the project if we don\u2019t have a means of controlling it.\u00a0 Without baselines we can\u2019t do either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I ask project managers what a baseline is and why it\u2019s important, they tell me that it is an approved starting point against which project performance is measured. They are right, of course.\u00a0 But when I ask them if they use baselines, as often as not, I find that baselining is a fundamental project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,211,14,1],"tags":[102,54,22,110],"coauthors":[140],"class_list":["post-4038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estimating-and-planning-project-management","category-project-management","category-scope-creep","category-watermark-learning","tag-baselines","tag-planning-and-estimating","tag-project-management","tag-scope-creep-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4038"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11254,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038\/revisions\/11254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4038"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}