Working with baselines
Capture snapshots of your project schedule to compare planned and actual dates, monitor delays, and measure how your project evolves over time.
What is a baseline?
A baseline is a snapshot of your project's schedule at a specific point in time.
It preserves the planned start and finish dates of tasks, allowing you to compare them with the current schedule as the project progresses.
Baselines help you understand how your project has changed and identify schedule deviations throughout its lifecycle.
Common use cases
Use baselines to:
Capture the original project plan.
Compare planned and current schedules.
Monitor project progress over time.
Identify delayed tasks.
Measure schedule deviations.
Track the impact of project changes.
Creating a baseline
To create a baseline:
Click Baselines on the toolbar.
Enter a name for the baseline.
Click Create New.
The current project schedule is saved as a baseline and can be selected at any time for comparison.
|
|---|
Viewing a baseline
Select a baseline from the Baselines list to display it on the timeline.
|
|---|
Baseline task bars are shown as orange bars beneath the current schedule, making it easy to compare the planned and current task dates.
If a task finishes later than planned, Gantt Suite displays a delay indicator next to the task.
For example:
Delay: 5d
This value represents the difference between the task's baseline finish date and its current finish date.
|
|---|
Hiding a baseline
To return to the standard chart view without displaying a baseline:
Open the Baselines menu.
Clear the selected baseline by clicking the × next to its name.
The baseline is hidden but remains available for future comparison.
|
|---|
Deleting a baseline
To permanently remove a baseline:
Open the Baselines menu.
Click the × next to the baseline you want to delete.
Note: Deleting a baseline cannot be undone.
|
|---|
Baselines and task grouping
When using Task Grouping, baselines must be created after the grouping has been applied.
If you create a baseline first and then change the task grouping, the baseline no longer matches the current task hierarchy and becomes invalid.
Recommended workflow:
Configure task grouping.
Verify the grouped structure.
Create the baseline.
If the grouping changes later, create a new baseline to reflect the updated chart structure.
Understanding baseline delay
When a baseline is displayed, Gantt Suite automatically calculates the delay for each task by comparing its planned finish date with its current finish date.
The delay is calculated as:
Current Finish Date − Baseline Finish Date
A positive value indicates the task is finishing later than originally planned.
A delay of 0 days means the task is on schedule.
If the current finish date is earlier than the baseline finish date, the task is ahead of schedule.
Delay indicators help project managers quickly identify schedule slippage and focus on tasks that require attention.
Best practices
Create a baseline before major project phases or milestones.
Create additional baselines before significant schedule changes to preserve planning history.
Use baselines together with Scenarios to compare proposed schedule changes before updating Jira.
Recreate baselines whenever task grouping changes, as existing baselines will no longer align with the modified hierarchy.
Review delay indicators regularly to identify tasks that are affecting the overall project schedule.