Schedule Report for Baseline Comparison (Dates and Duration)

The following figure is a simple schedule comparison report for dates and duration that could be used to communicate to your team where your project status is.

How to make this layout?

1.       Develop the baseline schedule that is agreed upon by your team.

2.       Maintain and assign a baseline to your current project.

3.       Go to View > Columns from menu > Find the “ BL1 Start, BL1 Finish, Start, Finish, Variance – BL1 Finish Date, Variance BL1 Duration, BL1 Total Float, Current Total Float” under available options.

4.       Go to View > Bars from the menu bar> Select baseline bar for all activities and milestone baseline for all milestones. Change the graphical appearance as desired.

How to use this layout?

1.       BL1 Start and BL1 Finish columns show the original baseline schedule date before the project is progressed. It represents where your baseline plan was.

2.       Variance-BL1 Finish column indicates the total date of current schedule movement against the baseline. The negative (-) sign indicates the schedule is behind the baseline and the Positive (+) sign shows the program is ahead of the plan. If the total activity of your schedule is more than 50, then apply the filter for those activities that are being delayed and see where the dates go. It saves your time; therefore, you can work efficiently as you don’t have to analyse each activity. For instance, use a filter, “Where Variance-BL1 Finish Date is greater than 3 days”, if you are only concerned about the activities delayed for more than 3 days.

3.       Variance-BL1 Duration shows the total duration difference between the baseline and current schedules. A negative (-) sign indicates the recent duration is longer than baseline. A positive (+) sign indicates current activity duration is shorter than the baseline. It will help you find out which activities are taking longer than anticipated and the reasons for the changes. It would help you, especially when the contractor/subcontractor schedules are reviewed. Use the filter, for instance – “Variance-BL1 Duration is less than 0” when you want to find out the activity duration that is longer than baseline.

4.       BL1 Total Float indicates the available, total floats and critical activities before the project is progressed.

5.       Current (Total Float) represents your current project status. It can be analysed where current critical paths and total available floats are.

Using this layout, the current project's activity profile can be analysed with the original one, and it would help you find out the reason for changes and delays. In contrast, the original schedule must be a realistic one to use your project schedule as a monitoring tool.

Do you want to get this layout? Then, download this sample layout and import it back to your project.