What are the baselines of Project Management?

  By: Chris Pfaff

There are three critical baselines in Project Management: scope, schedule, and budget. While each one of these is measured independently, a change in one will usually cause a change in the others.

Scope:

Problems with scope can be the easiest things to miss and the hardest to control—especially “scope creep,” where things that shouldn’t be in scope sneak their way into focus. Make sure out-of-scope items are clearly identified to minimize additional work, because that work will then need to be added into both your schedule and your budget.

But remember—all three affect each other. So what about scheduling and budgeting might affect scope? Can we use them to combat that pesky scope creep?

Schedule:

Schedules can be slippery even without scope creep. One of the best ways to keep your schedule on track (which will help bring the scope and budget along, too!) is to include downtime into your planning. This helps offset those unexpected events, scope-related or otherwise, that could potentially delay your project and so cause increased spending to get it back on track.

Budget:

Then, of course, there’s the budget itself to consider. The budget is often the most visible, tangible task. The best way to keep your budget intact in ways that help your scope on task and your schedule on track? Make sure to include some contingency funding to cover any risks. That way, you’ll be ready if those risks become reality.

To successfully manage a project, all three baselines need to be kept in sync: scope, schedule, and budget.

Here our favorite “quick tips” for these baselines:

• Know what is in-scope—and, even more importantly, what is out-of-scope,
• Understand the implied tasks for any defined activity so that costs and time are not unintentionally hidden,
• Include downtime in your schedule to minimize potential delays, and
• Include contingency funding in case those risks become reality.

So now you know that scope, schedule, and budget are the three critical baselines in Project Management!