A schedule is essential for project planning, but it is only a framework. The schedule shifts once you take action, completing your project task by task. How can you ensure that you stay on schedule and on track with your project?
This is where establishing a baseline comes into play. You
can compare where you are in the project execution—and if that aligns with
where you intended to be at that time—by creating a baseline project plan and a
baseline schedule.
How to
make a Schedule Baseline?
You must first
create a schedule before you can establish a baseline. To begin, make a list of
all the tasks you'll need to complete in order to complete your final
deliverable.
·
Identify Tasks
To work backward
from your final deliverable, use a work breakdown structure. This tool ensures
that no steps are skipped. To create a successful schedule, you must first
define each task in detail. Having planning meetings with your team and
stakeholders will help ensure that you don't miss any important steps. When
researching similar projects, you can also use historical data.
·
Determine Duration
Once you've planned
out all of your activities, you'll need to figure out how long they'll take to
complete. There are several methods that can assist you in obtaining an
accurate figure. Analogous estimating, which refers back to the time it took to
complete similar past projects, yields faster results. Three-point estimates
use a formula to calculate parameters for most likely, optimistic, and
pessimistic scenarios. There are, of course, other options. Select the option
that is best for you and your project.
·
Set Milestones
Tasks are small and
projects are large. The steps between those two points are known as milestones.
They are typically used to indicate the completion of one project phase and the
start of the next. A milestone, on the other hand, can be used to identify any
significant point in the project.
·
Identify Dependencies
Some of the tasks
you gathered will be self-contained, while others will be dependent on others.
That is, they won't be able to start or stop until someone else does. If you
don't identify these dependent tasks early on in the project, they can cause
problems later on.
·
Add Resources
Tasks do not finish
themselves. You must associate resources with them. Team members, materials,
tools, and other resources are examples of resources. All of these have
associated costs as well as an estimated duration to help you figure out how
long you'll need them.
·
Set Baseline
You now have a
project plan. Setting the baseline simply means taking a snapshot of the data.
As you move into the project's execution phase, you'll need that to compare
your progress.
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