The Change Baseline is used to save the change and for Cobra’s Integration Wizard to easily apply the change. During the step in the workflow where the change request is applied to the project using the Open Plan PM Compass Change Requests Add-In, the Change Baseline is created to save the details and is used to load the change request into Cobra. When the change request is approved, the read-only project is closed and the changes are not saved to the project, but the Change Baseline is saved. During the complete step, the changes are applied to the project and the project saved. This allows modeling of the change request without affecting the live project.
The Change Baseline contains the activities that change. There are two options on the Open Plan Add-In Workflow Options dialog box that let you define what goes into the Change Baseline:
Automatically Include All Changes in the Change Baseline - This option includes all activities that have been changed (they have the word "Changed" in the PMC_Changed_Text schedule field) and all downstream changes. Downstream changes are any activities that have a new date after the change is applied. You can view downstream changes by adding the PMC_Downstream_text column in Open Plan.
Manually select activities that changed - This option includes only those activities that have something in the PMC_Include_in_Baseline field.
If there is more than one activity linked to a work package and at least one of those linked activities is included in the Change Baseline, all of the activities linked to that work package are included in the Change Baseline. This ensures that the work package spans all activities linked to it.
The Change Baseline is made up of two tables: The Baseline Activity table and the Baseline Usage table which contains the resource assignment information. The Baseline Usage table of the Change Baseline contains only the resource assignments with the change class. When Cobra's Integration Wizard is run to update the work packages dates and load the change class, the existing Cobra data is moved within the new dates using the Respread these Classes to Remain within Dates option in Workflow Type Configuration.
When a budget or forecast change request is processed, the change baseline is created using the same name as the system-generated change number. If the change class is a budget class, you have the option to update the forecast with the budget change. When this option is selected, a temporary change baseline is created after the scheduler approves using the Open Plan Add-In. This temporary forecast baseline is used only during the complete step to update the forecast. If the project has a Forecast Baseline selected in the Project Details, the temporary baseline is merged into the forecast baseline.
When Cobra’s Integration Wizard is called by the change process, the name of the change baseline is passed to the web services overwriting what is stored in the configuration file. You can view the change baseline by using a spreadsheet view in Open Plan by changing the preferences and selecting the table baseline activity or baseline usage.
The schedule Budget Baseline is selected on the Schedule Integration tab of the Project Details view. This is the baseline from which the approved project budget for the schedule project being associated with the PM Compass project is loaded. A schedule may have multiple baselines and usually one of these baselines would represent the approved Performance Management Baseline (PMB).
When changes are made to an activity changes to the current baseline are held in a change baseline during approval and when the changed is approved these changes are merged into this Budget Baseline.
The Temporary Forecast Baseline is created at the same time as the change baseline after the scheduler approves using the Open Plan Add-In. This temporary forecast baseline is used when the Integrated Wizard is run to update the forecast baseline selected in the Project Details view after workflow completion.
The forecast baseline represents the approved project forecast. When the change class is a forecast class, approved requested amount is merged into this forecast baseline. In addition, the option to Update the Forecast with the Budget Change is option is selected, the temporary forecast baseline is merged into the forecast baseline.
Open Plan uses the forecast baseline to demonstrate cost and schedule integration to auditors. The forecast baseline in Open Plan time-phasing will match the Cobra forecast. When a change class contains a forecast class, or the option to update the forecast with the budget change is selected, the forecast baseline selected in Project Details is updated with this change to match the Cobra forecast. If the forecast baseline is not selected, then forecast changes will not update the forecast baseline.
When a baseline is created or updated in Open Plan, there a number of options. These options are set in Workflow Type Configuration on the Change Details on Form tab and passed to Open Plan when the Change Baseline is created:
Change Baseline Type |
Settings
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Budget Baseline
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Forecast Baseline
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When the change class is a forecast class:
The change baseline does not use the _ character at the start (like the forecast baseline for a BCR).
The check box for updating the forecast with the baseline change is ignored.
If there is a forecast baseline specified in project details then it is used in the same way as the budget baseline is used for a BCR/CCR. It is copied at the start to create the change baseline, and at the end, the change baseline is merge into the forecast baseline.
If there is no forecast baseline in project details then the change baseline is created using the same dates as the budget baseline. There is no merge on completion — the change baseline is just removed.
Steps are taken within the change baseline creation to identify when multiple change requests are submitted for the same activity. This is performed by storing the baseline start and finish date in the Budget Baseline at the time the change baseline is created. When the change is completed, if the Budget Baseline dates no longer match what is stored in the change baseline, it means that a change request containing the same activity has been completed since the change request was created. Completing this change request could revert the previously approved change.
The following steps explain how the budget baseline dates are saved and compared.
When the change request is applied in the Add-In during the approve step, the change baseline is created.
The existing start and finish dates are saved off for comparison. The date set used is determined by a setting in the baseline indicated in the Project Details form. If this baseline was based on early dates, then the early start and finish dates for the activities are saved in the following Open Plan user-defined fields:
PMC Budget Baseline Start Date — PM Compass uses this field to save the start date.
PMC Budget Baseline Finish Date — PM Compass uses this field to save the finish date.
The change request is applied to the schedule. In other words, the changes made in the change request are applied to the read-only project. Time analysis is run on the project, so the new dates are calculated based on the change request.
A filter is created, based on the selection of the PM Compass Workflow Options dialog box Automatically include all changes in the Change Baseline option (in the Open Plan Add-In), to determine all activities that changed by comparing the current date set (early or late dates) with the date set that was saved before the change was applied. This filter is used to create the Change Baseline (as well as the forecast baseline when the Update the Forecast with the Change Amount option in Workflow Type Configuration is selected).
When an activity is included in the filter, both the change amount and any existing resource assignments are included in the change baseline. Including the existing resource assignments ensures the existing budget moves to the new work package dates. The Change Baseline will be used by the Integration Wizard to load the change into the sandbox project and during the approval step.
See the Open Plan PM Compass Add-In help for more information about the Automatically include all changes in the Change Baseline option.
In addition to the change baseline, a second baseline is created for the forecast with the same filter. This ensures that when the change is applied, the forecast is increased by the budgeted amount. This baseline is not loaded into the sandbox project. It is loaded into the forecast class on the live project during the complete step.
The included activities are indicated by populating the following Open Plan user defined field:
PMC Change Request Baseline Filter— PM Compass uses this field to filter the Change Baseline.
PMC Associated Activities — PM Compass uses this field to find associated activities.
The read-only project is closed without saving the changes because the change request has not yet been approved. All of the data stored in the user defined files is lost; however, the Change Baseline is saved in the Open Plan project.
The Change Baseline is deleted when the last step action in the workflow (Remove Temporary Data) executes. This process cleans up data created by PM Compass to support the change process. The following data is removed:
The temporary Cobra project
The PM Compass Change Details View data
The View Summary data
The Change Baseline
Any classes no longer needed in the source Cobra project
If you get an Unable to Create Baseline error, confirm that:
The user specified in EPM SA has access to the Open Plan project; check the access control of the project.
The baseline being created doesn't already exist.
The Processdll2.dll is registered on the application server.
View the system generated Change Number field description
Change a rate file or date set
Understand the different date sets