Impact of moving Schedule Baselines on project portfolio reporting relevance
Christian KOCHOperations Project Director| MOLNLYCKE HEALTH CAREVillers L'Eveque, Belgium
Hello,
Can we have several schedule baselines in a project ?
As a project portfolio manager, I regularly face following issue I would like to get your opinion on.
A project manager propose to his sponsor to extend the project schedule a couple of times during the project lifecycle. Most of the time the sponsor has no other choice than accepting the new proposed schedule which becomes the new project baseline.
As a portfolio manager, when I report the Health Check of the Division portfolio , most of the projects show "Green" traffic light even if they are most of them significantly delayed vs the Initial project schedule BUT as the PMs consider their projects as on time vs the latest agreed upon schedule (latest schedule baseline), the entire project portfolio looks much better than reality.
Obviously, the governing body looking at this "Overall Green " picture claim we fool ourselves with self-complacency.
How would you suggest to give a more reliable picture of the project portfolio health without changing myself the project status reports colour coding I receive from PMs & Sponsors ?
Thanks in advance for your guidance
Christian Saving Changes...
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AKSHAY JAINPlanning Group Leader| YOKOGAWA, BahrainGwalior, Mp, India
Change of baseline is not allowed unless there are major changes in project and such changes are approved. Project Manager cant change baseline themselves before changing baseline they need to take approval of appropriate stakeholder's and convince reasons of baseline change. In your case you need to dig who is changing baseline and why, who is approving new baseline? If new baseline is not approved then project will be monitored by initial baseline, in practical scenario it is rare project will be in green and project can be kept in green so easily then project management is never required. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Christian,
There was a recent discussion thread I believe that tackled the same issue. It is very common to re-establish schedule baselines as the project moves forward but in order for us to be able to measure properly how the project is progressing we usually have two indicators:
1- One which measures progress against the new baseline. 2- Another that measures progress against the original baseline.
Having both performance parameters will allow you to have a better idea where the project stands.
Hope this helps. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Two really great responses. The important piece to acknowledge is to ensure having documented reasons for change and enough I information to tell the story. Saving Changes...
Christian KOCHOperations Project Director| MOLNLYCKE HEALTH CAREVillers L'Eveque, Belgium
Thank you all for these helping comments.
Based on your remarks, I see 2 solutions to my problem :
1) As Ramy suggested in this thread, keep track of both original and latest baseline and report project performance against both (more admin work for me as portfolio manager) but for sure the most complete view.
2) As suggested by Akshai, get project sponsors to become more strict to re-baseline project schedule (more often accepting that project delivery will be delayed without necessarily accepting to change the initial baseline as proposed by PM).
I guess the difficulty is for sponsors to decide when to accept and when to refuse proposed schedule re-baselining. Do you have any straightforward criteria to share which can help them this decision making process ?
Christian
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Oct 31, 2016 12:35 PM
Rami Kaibni
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Hi Christian,
If there is an official approved change and the project manager assessed and evaluated this change prior to being approved then there should be no problem in convincing the sponsors and moving forward, when the monthly report is issued from the project to all higher management, it will contain the two performance parameters I mentioned earlier and this should suffice in terms of progress information related to established baselines.
Having multiple baselines can help in evaluating and documenting trends over time. One way to do is to add baselines at each key point in your project, for instance at each phase end. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Oct 31, 2016 6:18 AM
Replying to Christian KOCH
...
Thank you all for these helping comments.
Based on your remarks, I see 2 solutions to my problem :
1) As Ramy suggested in this thread, keep track of both original and latest baseline and report project performance against both (more admin work for me as portfolio manager) but for sure the most complete view.
2) As suggested by Akshai, get project sponsors to become more strict to re-baseline project schedule (more often accepting that project delivery will be delayed without necessarily accepting to change the initial baseline as proposed by PM).
I guess the difficulty is for sponsors to decide when to accept and when to refuse proposed schedule re-baselining. Do you have any straightforward criteria to share which can help them this decision making process ?
Christian
Hi Christian,
If there is an official approved change and the project manager assessed and evaluated this change prior to being approved then there should be no problem in convincing the sponsors and moving forward, when the monthly report is issued from the project to all higher management, it will contain the two performance parameters I mentioned earlier and this should suffice in terms of progress information related to established baselines.
Hope this helps.
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1 reply by Christian KOCH
Oct 31, 2016 2:19 PM
Christian KOCH
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Yes it does Rami, thanks for your tip !
KR
Christian
Saving Changes...
Christian KOCHOperations Project Director| MOLNLYCKE HEALTH CAREVillers L'Eveque, Belgium
Oct 31, 2016 12:35 PM
Replying to Rami Kaibni
...
Hi Christian,
If there is an official approved change and the project manager assessed and evaluated this change prior to being approved then there should be no problem in convincing the sponsors and moving forward, when the monthly report is issued from the project to all higher management, it will contain the two performance parameters I mentioned earlier and this should suffice in terms of progress information related to established baselines.
Hope this helps.
Yes it does Rami, thanks for your tip !
KR
Christian
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Oct 31, 2016 4:09 PM
Rami Kaibni
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You're Welcome anytime Christian.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Baseline could not be moved for a simple reason: is like you start a race or trip and you like to know how much you have traveled and you are moving your starting point. No more than that. But everythig could be change if the change follow the change management process and you, as project manager, understand that the decision about the change is not in your hand. Your duty is to prepare all information needed and put it available to people who have to take the decission. Saving Changes...
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