Smartsheet Tutorial - Setting a Project Baseline

Setting a Project Baseline in Smartsheet allows you to determine if you are behind schedule or ahead of schedule, regarding your original plan. This feature is easy to set up and adds columns to your plan that are easy to read, as far as variance. Check out this step-by-step tutorial on how to do it yourself.
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Kandis Porter is the Founder and Managing Director of Effective Flow Connections (EFC), a management consulting company that helps transform organizations through project management, process improvement, change management, facilitation of key meetings, and training. Kandis also works one-on-one with clients, focusing on Leadership development and growth. EFC enables organizations to do what they do, even better!
Kandis Porter has more than 17 years of experience managing people and large projects in both the government and private sectors. She has supported clients in various industries, to include the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, utilities, medical device, non-profit, and learning & development. Kandis has a Master of Science Degree in Project Management (MSPM) from The George Washington University and Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Human Resources. In addition, she is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), PMP Exam Prep Course Instructor through Project Management Institute, Prosci Change Manager, and Six Sigma Green Belt. She is also certified as a Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Practitioner, Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) Practitioner, and is a DiSC Workshop facilitator.

[@edwardhanna1152]

Great work, Kandis! I have been beating the "Scheduling Best Practices" drum for 50 years--as nothing can be more critical to project success. I applaud your ability to communicate these critical practices (e.g. work breakdown structure; resource loading; dependency linking; baselining) in an easily understood manner. What you are teaching is the "real deal"--not some dumbed-down version of building project schedules. And happily, the Smartsheet tool can support what you are teaching. Keep up the good work!

[@PMPexpert]

Thank you, Edward! I appreciate the positive feedback and couldn’t agree more about the importance of practicing key project management practices.

[@AndyHawes]

Great smartsheets info and way shorter than most out there (who has an hour to watch a tutorial?). It helped me as we had custom baseline columns in our sheets that we didn't even need - much smarter to use the functionality that's built in! Thank you.

[@victorford6378]

Thank you Kandis, you video really helped me to confirm my understanding of baselines in "real practice". Really helpful video.

[@hosrowjaffarbhoy1694]

Thank you, this was a great and quick tutorial. I will continue looking for other small tidbits

[@miguelconcepcion4584]

I’ve been watching your videos and I’m learning so much about the proper way to use smartsheet. Thank you for sharing and keep up the great work!

[@PMPexpert]

Thank you, Miguel! I learn more every day, as they keep releasing improvements. I am thrilled to hear it is helpful. 😁

[@haithamabusharar7940]

Thanks Kandis :)

[@PMPexpert]

Thanks for watching!

[@lisaromantic4046]

Hi Kandis, Your video is very useful for me. Thank you for your effort! I will keep my eye on your upcoming video!

[@PMPexpert]

Awesome, thanks Lisa!

[@aturner2582]

This was great. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.

[@PMPexpert]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mauriciomurad467]

Thanks, very clear and usefull

[@PMPexpert]

Thanks for watching, Mauricio!

[@kenerrico6334]

awesome training

[@PMPexpert]

Thanks, Ken!

[@jairolopeztapia8387]

Amazing! Thanks! Is there somehow to edit the form and color of the baseline?

[@manuelmartinezbriceno8672]

this feature is interesting and useful. I have one question though, do you know if it is possible have the total or final VARIANCE value (the one in the summary) into a dashboard?

[@chaddumars8223]

Thank you Kandis for the Baseline video. I am new to your videos and have been enjoying them. I use Smartsheet to schedule multiple projects at the same time. Is it possible to set a baseline for just a selected group of tasks?

[@PMPexpert]

Thanks, Chad! Glad you’re enjoying the videos. The baseline is either turned on or off for each project in Smartsheet, as it automatically adds the columns for tracking. I hope this info is helpful!

[@ZBG1989]

Hi Kandis - thanks for the great videos. You mentioned you can make additional baselines. How do you do that? If you remove it and reset it, do you lose your original baseline? Is there a way to save the previous baselines even while working based on an updated baseline? Thank you

[@PMPexpert]

Hello Zachary! Great question and while you can set new baselines, it does remove the previous one. Unfortunately, it isn't like MS Project where you can have multiple set at one time and compare the differences. Maybe in the future! Here is information on 'Resetting' a baseline: help.smartsheet.com/articles/2482093-baselines#toc-edit-or-remove-baselines-from-your-sheet

[@christianbourguillon4274]

Would change the "Start Date" and "Due Date" column names to "Actual Start..,etc..." to be clear since the baseline dates are "locked"?

[@PMPexpert]

Yes, I completely agree with this. Those columns are intended to be actual dates while the baseline dates are the forecast you are comparing against to determine if you are behind schedule or ahead of schedule. Great suggestion!

[@mariasohail2331]

Hi Kandis! Thanks for sharing this video! I have a question: When I updated my duration, it only changed my start date column not my end date column. I do have all my activities dependent on certain key dates. So could it be because of the predecessors I have set? I see you had predecessors, but all your following tasks end dates also changed accordingly. Thanks in advance!

[@PMPexpert]

Hi Maria - can you please confirm you are only updating the child tasks vs the parent tasks? If so, there is a good chance that not all end dates will change based on the predecessors you have set, just the ones that will be directly impacted by the change in duration!

[@brigedia]

Hi Kandis i would like to know if i can create Master schedule and have another sheet as milestone schedule that is tied to master schedule. i would like to know if i can use Smartsheet for pull planning

[@PMPexpert]

Hi Adan! YES, you can absolutely do this. Smartsheet actually has a template set called Project Tracking and Rollup that I cover in this KZbin video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2jSnmmJo5Wloac. It has the project milestones report already set up, along with several other helpful sheets for tracking project progress. Definitely a huge benefit!

[@vruso]

Hi Kandis, I am pretty new to smartsheets and trying to create a schedule on smartsheet i have done export to excel and import in smartsheet, but the problem faced are there are no WBS indents (which can be fixed easily), but how to make Activity id column as the row # so that smartsheet predecessor formula will work and pull exactly the same way P6 do please let me know link to any of your tutorial if you have already covered appreciate your help! Thanks

[@PMPexpert]

Hello Aniket! I recommend you explore setting up auto-numbering rows in Smartsheet. Check out this article and let me know if it meets your needs: help.smartsheet.com/articles/1108408-auto-numbering-rows

[@PiotrSilarow]

Hi is there any way to operate with baseline using free user license? maybe you know some workaround

[@PMPexpert]

Hello! Unfortunately, I’m not aware of a workaround on being able to use baselines with a free account. From my understanding, you need at least a Pro account. Thanks for reaching out with your question!

[@MsChoco99]

If i have copied a project plan from an existing plan for the new year, how do I reset the baseline date?

[@PMPexpert]

I just published a video on this - thanks for the request! Check it out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJfQppyvlLapbs0

[@talshir3]

Hi! How can I know on what date was a baseline set? I need to know when I created it to evaluate its relavency

[@PMPexpert]

Hi Tal! I don't believe Smartsheet has a simple way to show when the baseline was set. The approach I have used in the past is a workaround. You can view the 'Activity Log' and under "Actions' filter by 'Cell Changes'. I change the beginning 'Date Range' to 'None', which will allow you to see changes from the beginning of the project. When the baseline was set, it should show each of the rows listed with a cell change and the variance showing up as 0. The only way I know how to view the baseline being set is to comb through the cell changes to find the info. Hopefully they can add a date stamp to the 'Baseline' box in the future!

[@talshir3]

@@PMPexpert Thanks for the workaround. I will definitely give it a shot and once I find it, I'll note it in a cell somewhere.. that will be easier next time.

[@PMPexpert]

@@talshir3 please let me know how it goes. Hopefully it was set early in the project so you won’t have to dig too much!