Baselining the Project’s Triple Constraints
Agreed plan, prior to starting, to measure against: Time, budget, and scope are intertwined, and changes to one impact the others – baselining set up the intended balance and mirrors the project execution plan.
Baseline – the opening position as reference
The baseline is the starting point depiction from where to begin the project, how to judge obtained results each status reporting period, and how to compare the project against initial expectations. A baseline decomposed to the appropriate level supports efficient change control/scope-creep/project-delay discussions, which are the most common unavoidable issues on projects.
In baselining, Dyadanac services extend to assisting with compilation and review of:
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Scope – the quality and quantity
- Definition of the scope, inclusions & exclusions, qualifications & assumptions
- Value engineering of the scope: Make it work, then make it better!
- Work decomposition and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
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Time – duration & sequencing of the scope
- Definition of constraints and key milestones
- Basis of Schedule templates & checklists
- Planning & scheduling of WBS elements
- Integrating associating costs & resources
- Progress templates
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Cost – time phased resourcing of the scope
- Basis of Estimate/Budget templates & checklists
- Estimate to a Cost Breakdown Structure
- Cost Coding
- Budget to the Work Breakdown Structure
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Combinations
- Model & evaluate competing demands
- Cash-flow curves: Liquidity/neutrality/advances/financing
- Baseline progress curves: Basis for Earned Value analysis
Updating of baselines:
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Approved Scope Changes within the delegation of authority
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Irregular Scope Changes accepted by the Change Control Authority
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Variances due to Performance outside the Acceptable Threshold (upon acceptance of Change Control Authority).
See 'Controls, Variance and Change Management' for Dyadanac services.
