The approved plan is overwritten
The schedule is updated every week and nobody saved the version that was approved. When the owner asks how far the finish has slipped, there is nothing to compare with.
Terms
Baseline schedule in construction: the plan you measure against
A baseline schedule is the plan as it stood when it was approved, frozen so that later changes can be measured against it. The current schedule moves every week; the baseline does not. In Fidrel you save a baseline from the schedule, pick it in the View menu, and each activity that has moved shows a thin baseline line beneath its bar, while the end date shows how many days the project has moved.
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Why teams lose the baseline
Progress mistaken for variance
An activity can be 40 percent complete and still be on its baseline dates, or 80 percent complete and a month late. Percent complete says how much is done, and the baseline says whether the work is happening when it was planned.
A re-baselined plan that hides the slip
When the baseline is reset to match the current plan, the variance returns to zero. Without a record of what was saved and when, a reset is easy to make and hard to notice.
Baseline, current plan, forecast and actual
The baseline is the approved plan frozen. The current plan is the live schedule that the team updates. A forecast is where the current plan says the work will finish, and the actuals are what has really happened: the actual start and finish of an activity and its progress. Variance is the gap between the forecast and the baseline. In Fidrel the current plan and the forecast are the same bars, the baseline is a saved copy, and the progress line shows whether work is ahead of plan, on track or behind plan.
Scheduling
Baseline variance and planned progress are different checks
Planned progress assumes even progress across the working days of the working calendar, and the actual progress is what the team enters. That compares the work done with the work that should be done by today. The baseline compares dates, not progress: it tells you whether the finish has moved. A schedule can be on track by progress today and still have a positive variance on the end date, because an earlier delay was absorbed and the finish moved.
Saving and reading a baseline in Fidrel
Step 1
Save the baseline once the plan is approved
Open the More menu in the Schedule and choose Save baseline. The name starts as Baseline with today’s date and can be changed, and Fidrel stores every activity as it stands at that moment.
Step 2
Choose which baseline to compare with
Open the View menu and select a baseline under Baseline. Each activity that has moved since then shows a thin gray line under its bar, with the part it now finishes later in orange, and hovering over the line shows the baseline start and finish. Choose the dash to show none.
Step 3
Read the variance at the end date
The end date of the schedule shows a Variance in days against the latest end date in the chosen baseline, with a plus sign when the project finishes later and a minus sign when it finishes earlier. The tile Baseline comparison reminds you to select or save a baseline if none is chosen.
Step 4
Save another when the plan is formally changed
When an approved change moves the plan, save a new baseline with a name that says so. The earlier baselines stay in the list, so you can compare the current plan with either, and the schedule history records each save.
Who saves a baseline, and what it keeps
Only the people who can edit the schedule, the project’s administrators, save a baseline; everyone who can open the schedule can pick one to compare. A baseline stores each activity that is not archived, together with the working calendar at that moment. Baseline bars also appear under every activity in the PNG, SVG and print views of the schedule when a baseline is selected.
What the baseline in Fidrel does not do
Fidrel shows the variance in days for the schedule’s end date, not as a number on every activity; for an activity that has moved, the baseline line under its bar shows where it was planned. A duplicated schedule does not copy the baselines, so save a baseline again in the copy. A saved baseline is not a contractual or forensic baseline; your contract decides which plan counts. A baseline holds the activities of the schedule, not costs or resources.
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The approved schedule saved as a fixed reference. Later updates to the schedule are compared with it, so you can see how far the dates have moved from what was approved.
The current schedule changes whenever the team updates it. The baseline does not change after it is saved. The difference between them is the variance you report to the owner.
Yes. Each Save baseline adds another named baseline, and you choose which one to compare with in the View menu. Use clear names, for example the approval date and the reason.
At the schedule’s end date, as a number of days later or earlier than the baseline’s last end date, and visually as a thin baseline line under each activity that has moved.
No. Fidrel saves a record of the plan at that moment, and the schedule history shows that a baseline was saved. Which plan counts for the contract is for the contract and the parties to decide.