Creating a Pure Progress Update Using the Update Baseline Options

Often times we are faced with a situation where the updated schedule has substantially changed compared to the previous update. These changes include sequencing changes, duration changes, added activities, deleted activities etc. With all these changes already incorporated in the schedule, it is hard to visualize what the end date or critical path would have been if only a pure progress update has been performed. However, often Owners want to see a pure progress update, which translates to updating only the actual dates (Actual Start Date, Actual Finish Date etc.,). How do we accomplish this task? Below we show simple steps to accomplish a pure progress update. The process we recommend is a reverse engineering process, whereby we use schedule prior to the change and save it as a Baseline and the Update the Baseline (Transferring the current actuals from the current project to the Baseline).

Step 1 : Maintain Baseline

It is assumed that a Baseline schedule has been established prior to the update process, and that schedule is available. We open the current updated schedule and save the original Baseline through the Maintain Baseline command. See below, Baseline -B1 has now been established as the Baseline.

Step 2 : Update Baseline

The second step in the process is transferring only the actual date information from the Current Schedule to the Baseline. This is done through the Update button on the Maintain Baseline windows. Once you click on the Update Baseline, the “Update Baseline Options” window opens up. We have unselected all the options with exception to “Dates, Duration and Data Date”. Then we click on Update. This process will take all the actual dates and incorporate those in the original Baseline.

In the example below, the simple schedule shows activities A through H. In the update, an added activity D1 was added. Prior to these changes, the original Baseline was saved. When the original baseline was updated using the process described above, the actual dates were assigned to the Baseline, and the data date was moved. However, the added activity D1 was not included in the update. While the current schedule shows a completion date of 23 October 2020, the pure progress update shows the  completion date is maintained as 16 October 2020.