The Change Baseline is used to save the change and for Cobra’s Integration Wizard to apply the changes to the sandbox easily and to the live project during the complete step. When you approve the workflow during Model Changes, the Change Baseline is created. During the complete step, after integration is run on the live project, the change baseline is merged into the project baseline.
When you make any change to an activity, that activity gets added to the change baseline. In addition, when there are many activities linked to the same work package, all of the associated activities are added to the change baseline so that the work package new baseline dates encompass all of the activities linked to that work package. Similarly, if you delete an activity from the schedule, PM Compass includes the activities that are linked to the same work package as the deleted activity in the change baseline.
The baseline dates for the activity are updated to either the early dates or late dates based on the option selected when the project baseline was created. If the activity contains a Yes or Y in the PMC Update Baseline Dates field. If the activity contains a No or No in the PMC Update Baseline Dates field, the baseline dates from the project baseline are used in the change baseline.
The Change Baseline is made up of two tables: the Baseline Activity table and the Baseline Usage table that contains the resource assignment information. The Baseline Usage table of the Change Baseline contains only the resource assignments with the change number.
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 Model Changes. 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 change 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 Model Changes. 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 temporary forecast baseline starts with an underscore and removes the middle letter of the change number prefix.
Optionally, you can maintain a forecast baseline if you select a forecast baseline on the Schedule Integration tab in the Project Details view. The forecast baseline represents the approved project forecast. When the change class is a forecast class, the approved requested amount is merged into this forecast baseline. In addition, if 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 are a number of options. In a budget change request, many of the options are inherited from the project baseline. When creating the forecast baseline, the options selected in Workflow Type Configuration are used:
Ignore Progress
Use Remaining Qty
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.
The full set of baseline options are described in the following table.
Change Baseline Type |
Settings
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Budget Baseline
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Forecast Baseline
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You must ensure to not have two in progress change requests on the same activity and/or the same work package. If you do, the changes associated with the last completed workflow will overwrite the first workflow. If you encounter this issue before completing the second workflow, you can reject the workflow back to the scheduler step and begin the approval process.
This does not include the control account. In other words, there is no problem with having two in progress change requests for the same control account. A good example is one change request for the labor work packages and activities, and one for the material work packages. In this scenario, the workflows will both be applied without overwriting each other.
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 data in the Change Log
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 does not 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