Time and Cost Baselines: How To Interpret Progress Data

Effective control over time and costs is paramount. ProjectContexts, our advanced project management platform, empowers you to establish and manage both Time and Cost Baselines seamlessly.

Schedule / Time Baselines

A project baseline is a crucial tool that can be incorporated at any stage, with the flexibility of creating an unlimited number of baseline schedules. Once selected, the baseline is intricately integrated into the current schedule, providing a graphical representation. However, graphical displays have limitations. To overcome this, ProjectContexts offers a robust reporting utility. This utility (See Figure 1) facilitates a comprehensive table-based comparison between the current schedule and the baseline schedule, including actual hours, remaining hours, and the estimate for total hours at completion.

Figure 1: Baseline Selection

The simplicity of a single keystroke activates the Baseline utility, as shown in Figure 1. On the schedule, the selected baseline is graphically overlaid, as illustrated in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Baseline Overlayed on Current Schedule

To delve deeper, a baseline report provides insights into differences between baselines and disparities between a baseline and the current schedule, as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Differences Between 2 Baselines

Creating, Viewing, and Selecting Baseline

Progress tracking reports for individual project elements, such as overall project, systems, and tasks, also display the baseline graphically. In Figure 4, the baseline is instrumental in interpreting progress reports. For instance, “scope 2” could explain a slight uptick in the estimated remaining hours around September 2022.

Figure 4: Baselines Used for Interpretation of Progress Reports

Cost Baselines

Parallel to time baselines, cost baselines play a vital role, focusing on total costs, including labor costs based on standard skill classifications. Figure 5 exemplifies the creation of a cost baseline, mirroring the process for a time baseline.

Figure 5: Cost Baseline Created

To gain insights into cost-related metrics, ProjectContexts offers a dedicated Cost Baseline report, illustrated in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Cost Baseline Report

In conclusion, ProjectContexts provides an integrated solution for project managers to manage time and cost baselines effectively, enhancing project control and decision-making. To experience the full potential of ProjectContexts, sign up for our free trial today and elevate your project management capabilities.

Ready to optimize your projects? Reach out to speak to a ProjectContexts professional today OR Sign up for a free trial here of ProjectContexts now!

February 16, 2024 Project management
Comments are closed.