Optimize project planning with baseline comparisons

Baseline comparisons (often referred to as target/actual comparisons) play a central role in project management. They enable project managers to compare the current plan with previous plans and serve as reference points. In this way, changes to the plan can be clearly displayed in order to recognize patterns and take appropriate measures.
This article shows you how to get the most out of baseline comparisons.

First of all, what is a baseline?

A baseline is essentially a reference point or initial plan that represents the state of project planning at a particular point in time. It represents the plan as it was at that point in time before any changes or further developments were made. If changes occur during the course of the project, these new plans are compared with the baseline.

Like a time machine, the comparison allows project managers to return to different stages of project planning.

By comparing the new plans with the baseline, deviations and patterns can be quickly identified. Conclusions can be drawn from this that not only affect the current course of the project, but also provide valuable insights for future projects. Without baselines, there is a risk that the same mistakes will be repeated.

Baseline comparisons in themselves do not solve problems, but they do help to identify problem patterns from which conclusions can be drawn for optimization.

Regular comparisons with the baseline allow the team to determine if and when changes to the plan have been necessary. If it turns out that the plan regularly does not match reality and needs to be constantly revised, this may be a sign that the plan was not realistic. In this case, it is important to learn from the baseline and adopt a more realistic approach for future projects.

Let's say a construction team is tasked with building a series of single-family homes. During the construction process, delays repeatedly occur in the same phase of the project, requiring an adjustment to the plan. The particular work package repeatedly takes longer than planned. The regular baseline comparison shows that the schedule for this phase was too optimistic.

In this case, the work package simply needs to be planned longer in future projects. This may mean that the entire project has to be started earlier if a certain deadline is to be met. The project team should therefore set more realistic timeframes when planning future projects. If templates are used, adjustments can be made centrally in the template.

In general, baseline comparisons help to identify problem patterns and take preventative measures to avoid similar problems in the future.

Let's assume that the delivery of materials for a certain work package always takes longer than expected due to delivery problems during the construction of single-family homes. As a result, subsequent work steps have to be postponed.

The ordering of materials should be scheduled earlier in the plan, i.e. the "Orders" work package must be brought forward. This will ensure that the materials are available on time and that there are no more delays. Baseline comparisons are also the tool used here to identify a problem.

If there are repeated delays in the same project phase, this may also be due to the team itself, for example. In contrast to the first scenario, it may be that the planned time is perfectly reasonable, but the construction team is proceeding inefficiently.

In this case, internal process optimization is required to increase efficiency and complete the tasks in the planned time. Process optimization could include the introduction of new technologies or methods that speed up workflows and improve the quality of work, or better distribute the workload internally. In this way, the project team can make the best use of resources in future projects and move work forward effectively.

During the single-family home project, a client decides that one of the homes should have special features, such as high-end materials, additional amenities and custom design adjustments. This change results in an adjustment to the original plan, including sourcing additional building materials, re-evaluating the schedule and adjusting workflows.

Because of these adjustments, it is important to file the original plan centrally. When stakeholders ask about the project's progress, they often want to know what the plan looked like before the change and why there were delays. In such cases, the baseline serves as a reference point to make the development of the project transparent. By comparing the original plan with the updated plan, stakeholders can understand how the project circumstances have changed, for example due to the customer's decision, and what impact this has had on the schedule.

In this way, the baseline enables transparent communication throughout the course of the project and helps to strengthen stakeholders' trust in the management of the project.

By conducting baseline comparisons, not only can current problems be identified and solved, but valuable insights can be gained that can be applied to future projects. It is this proactive approach that makes the difference between success and failure. With each baseline comparison and each new application, the project team becomes better and more accurate with each project.

It is questionable whether the perfect project plan can even exist. But with the method of iterative improvement, supported by baseline comparisons, you can at least come close to the ideal.

The term "baseline comparison" is more precise because you create a plan at a certain point in time that serves as a baseline and then compare the current plan with this baseline. In other words, two plans are compared with each other.

In contrast, the term "target/actual comparison" can be misleading, as "target" usually refers to the plan and "actual" to the actual work progress. In reality, however, two plans are compared with each other and not the work progress. Even if only two plans are compared with each other, this is still very meaningful. This is because changes to plans also say a lot about the progress of the project.

A target/actual comparison can usually be found in the project controlling section of project management tools.

The lack of a baseline can make it difficult to evaluate project progress, as there is no clear reference point against which the current status of the project can be measured. You make the same mistakes over and over again and cannot learn from them.

In addition, the lack of a baseline can make communication with stakeholders more difficult. Without a defined plan as a reference point, discussions about project progress can be confusing and lead to misunderstandings. This in turn can affect stakeholders' trust in project management and make collaboration more difficult.

It is also problematic if a baseline has been forgotten to be saved. In many project planning programs, baselines can only be saved at a certain point in time. If you forget to do this or realize afterwards that it would have been better to save a baseline, it is already too late. It is better if you can also create baselines retrospectively, as a "journey into the past".

Octaved Flow makes it possible to create several baselines per project, save them centrally and compare them with each other. It is also possible to create baselines retroactively for any point in time in the past.