Rick from San Jose, CA asks: During the execution of my project, my baseline needs to be updated because of change requests from my clients. What is the best way to do this in Microsoft Project?

Answer: When the baseline of the project is set, it is set for all three areas of the data structure. Values will be set for tasks, assignments, and resources. There are technically 11 sets of baseline fields in the system, Baseline and Baselines 1-10. The Baseline field is the default used when you first set a baseline. When a baseline is updated, you select one of the other 10 sets of Baseline fields.

By default the Baseline fields will be used in the project variance calculations. Baseline fields 1-10 are used for earned value, updated baselines, or as free use fields for schedulers. If updated baselines are updated to use fields Baseline 1-10, the option to indicate an alternate baseline used for variance calculations should be set.

When setting a baseline, the fields in the first column of Table 1 will be copied and held in the fields in column two. The “estimated” fields are used for manually scheduled tasks in Project 2010:

Ask the Experts: Updating the Baseline
Set the baseline to the Baseline1 fields.If changes to the project schedule are approved and the customer agrees on the setting of a new baseline, follow the steps below. In the example, the baseline will be saved into the Baseline1 fields. Baselines 1-10 are available for this purpose:

2. Change the option to indicate which baseline should be used for the variance calculation.
3. Change a Gantt Chart View to display Baseline1 fields.
4. Change the Variance tables to view the Baseline1 fields.

Step 1

To set the baseline to the Baseline1 fields in Project 2010:

1. Project | Set Baseline | Set Baseline.
2. Set Baseline — Baseline 1.
3. For Entire Project.
4. Click OK.

To set the baseline to the Baseline1 fields in earlier Project versions:

1. Tools | Tracking | Set (or Save) Baseline.
2. Set Baseline — Baseline 1.
3. For: Entire Project.
4. Click OK

Step 2

To change the option to indicate which baseline should be used for the variance calculation in Project 2010:

1. File | Options | Advanced | Earned Value option for this project.
2. Select Baseline 1.
3. Click OK to close the box.