How to Configure and Manage Baselines for OnePlan Work Plans

Purpose

This article explains how to configure baselines for your Work Plans.

What you will accomplish
You will learn to configure, manage, and control baselines so teams can capture and compare project performance effectively.

Requirements

• Global Permissions = Administrator
• Work Plan app installed
• Access to the Plan Type you want to configure

Background

A baseline is a snapshot of your project’s original schedule and planned effort. Once saved, a baseline allows you to measure project performance by comparing current progress against the original plan.

OnePlan supports up to 11 baselines: the default Baseline (0) plus 10 additional baselines you can configure as needed.

By default, OnePlan stores the following fields for each work item in Baseline (0):

• % Done: The percent complete at the time the baseline is captured. For an initial baseline, this should be 0% because no actual progress has occurred yet.
• Start: The planned start date of the work item.
• Due: The planned finish date of the work item.
• Effort: The estimated hours required to complete the task.
• Remaining Effort: Estimated hours remaining once work begins. For an initial baseline, this should match the planned effort since there are no actuals yet.

The fields stored in a baseline are fully customizable, allowing your organization to tailor baseline tracking to its planning and reporting needs.

This guide walks you through the steps to configure baselines for your environment.

Instructions

Access the Baseline Settings

1. Go to a Work Plan > List in a plan of the desired Plan Type (e.g. Project, Program).
   Because baselines are tied to a Plan Type (e.g., Project, Program), you must open a plan of that type to access its configuration.
2. In the toolbar, click the ellipsis (...) > Configure to open the Plan Type configuration.
   
3. Locate the Baselines section of the configuration. Here you will see all of the currently available baselines. From here you can:
   1. Create a New Baseline
   2. Edit an Existing Baseline
   3. Delete a Baseline
      

Create a New Baseline

1. Click Add New Item (+) to open the New Baseline form.
2. Complete the form:
   1. Index: Select the index number for this baseline. The Index is an internal identifier that tells the system where to store the baseline data—independent of the baseline’s display name.
      • The default baseline uses Index 0.
      • Additional baselines should use Index 1, 2, 3, and so on.
   2. Name: Enter the display name for the baseline. This name appears to end users and is also appended to the baseline fields generated when the snapshot is saved (e.g., Baseline 2 Remaining Effort, Baseline 4 % Done).
   3. Work Fields: Select the Work Fields that should be captured when the user saves this baseline.
   4. Baseline Security: Specify who is allowed to save baselines.
      1. First Baseline: Choose the resource(s) permitted to save the initial baseline for a plan.

      2. Subsequent Baselines: Choose the resource(s) permitted to save any baselines after the first one.

         Note
         Multiple resources can be selected for each.

3. Click Add. The new baseline will appear in the Baselines list and will be available for end users.
   

Edit an Existing Baseline

1. Click Edit (✏️) to open the Edit Baseline form.
2. Update the baseline's attributes as needed.

3. Click Update to save your changes.

   Note
   You cannot change the baseline's Index number.

Delete a Baseline

1. Click Delete (x) next to the baseline you want to remove.
2. In the Confirm Deletion dialog, click Yes to permanently delete the baseline.

Related Resources

Want to learn more about Baselines? Check out the following resources:

• Work Plan Baseline Basics
• Save a Baseline for All Tasks in a Schedule
• Save a Baseline for Selected Tasks in a Schedule