Baseline - staying on top of it

Another great habit to get into is to always have the current baseline set to 'Baseline'. There are a couple of good reasons for this:

1. By default, Project's Earned Value options are set to use Baseline for Earned Value calculations.

2. Let's say you have multiple projects on the go, and you are revisiting a project you haven't seen for a couple of days... "which baseline is this one at, baseline 1, 2 or was it 4??? After you've updated your actuals, and about to set a new baseline, first copy the outdated baseline into the next available baseline slot, and save your new baseline into Baseline. This way, through force of habit, you'll always know Baseline is the correct, current Baseline. To do this in Project 2007:

Tools -> Tracking -> Set Baseline...
Select Set interim plan
Change the Copy: drop down menu to Baseline
Change the Into: drop down menu to Baseline 1
Click OK

As pictured here:

Then:

Tools -> Tracking -> Set Baseline...
Select Set baseline
Click OK

The following message will appear, overwriting the old baseline is ok as it's been copied into Baseline 1.

Click Yes