RTucker
Mon May 23 12:51:03 CDT 2005
Yes, I totally agree and am attempting to do just that. use a legitimate
baseline. But my file corruption issues prevented me from continuing work
with a 5800 line schedule unless I performed the "project import and delink"
routine I described. This left me with a Baseline that is now questionable.
When I found the milestone with a BLfinish that was before it's BLstart, I
became very suspicious of MSP 2003's ability to calculate and maintain data.
I traced back through archived files and found the Finish<Start issue existed
long before I performed the conversion to correct the VBA issues.
Here's what I discovered since then...
MS Project does not protect the Baseline fields at all! You can manually
overwrite them. So, I can go through all the pains of establishing a
baseline, then someone can change the data in Baseline Start/Finish, etc. and
resave the file. The "Last saved on..." info is not affected. There is no
way to know if someone messes with the schedule data.
Microsoft need to put field-level security on this product. And they need
to add better error checking into the calculations functionality to prevent
time-warping milestones!
--
RTucker, PMP
"Steve House [Project MVP]" wrote:
> As food for thought, I like to think of the baseline as b eing a record of
> the plan that you thought you were going to do, preserving your original
> intention so you an later compare the plan as it is evolving when you
> actually do the work so you can see how well you're doing against your
> original projections. As such, I suggest that one only re-baseline a plan
> in response to scope changes that make it effectively a substantially new
> project and then only rebaselining the tasks that changed or were added in
> response to the new requirements.
>
> --
> Steve House [MVP]
> MS Project Trainer & Consultant
> Visit
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
>
> "RTucker" <RTucker@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:844C5717-0421-40B7-A491-A0ED7C82D099@microsoft.com...
> > Hello all,
> >
> > We had a VBA curruption issue that was resolved only by inserting the bad
> > file into a new blank file at Task line 1, then disabling the link to the
> > bad
> > file. (everyone follow that?) An export/import of XML would not work,
> > either from possible bad logic in the XML file, or due to the XML filesize
> > of
> > 350MB. Even a four processor, 3GB RAM PC would not import the XML file.
> > Anyway...
> >
> > After disabling the external link I was left with a new project file with
> > all my original data. I am left with the question of how does Project
> > track
> > the baseline values on tasks and for the project overall.
> >
> > Understandably, the date the last Baseline was performed no longer appears
> > in parenthesis, in Tools-Tracking. So, what do I do?
> >
> > By baselining all tasks, I will lose all my variance, yes? I do not want
> > to
> > rebaseline the entire project. I'm on a government project and the
> > auditors
> > will not like that.
> >
> > I rebaselined one task where the S/F dates matched the baseline dates, and
> > the (last baselined on) date is now showing. But does this validate all
> > the
> > other baseline values for all the other tasks?
> >
> > Project allows you to manually enter/edit baseline date values into task
> > records. What's up with that?!! Does MS Project track the baseline
> > status
> > of each task, or only at the project level. I've reviewed the E/R diagram
> > from the Resource Kit, but don't see the answer.
> >
> > Oh, one more, please...
> > In reviewing the baseline dates, I found a Milestone task with BLstart of
> > 4/20/05 and a BLfinish of 4/16/05! How can that be?
> >
> > ---
> > RTucker, PMP
>
>