Project Schedule and Schedule Baseline

Difference between Project Schedule and Schedule Baseline

Project Schedule and Schedule Baseline are documents which are produced during the Planning Phase of a Project. At first the Project schedule is baselined as per the information available during the Planning Phase, and this gives the Schedule Baseline. After Planning Phase the Schedule Baseline is now a published document for the Project and will be referred during the execution of the Project. Read here about Baseline Start/Finish. (This reference explains how Baseline is set in a Project. One can capture this baseline state in Microsoft Project Tool.)

As the Project moves to execution phase, the Project Manager takes the Schedule Baseline as the starting point of the Project Schedule. From here on as the project proceeds, changes will be made to the Project Schedule. In other words, Project Schedule is a living document, whereas Schedule Baseline is fixed or published document. Any changes to the Schedule Baseline will require approval from a Change Control Board and will result in a revised Schedule Baseline.

A baselined schedule is a perfect tool to measure project performance by comparing the actual or current Project Schedule with the Schedule Baseline. The Project Schedule is a project document which is used to keep track and record the progress of activities in progress, completed, actual start date of activities, actual finish date of activities, time spent in completing the activities etc.

The Develop Schedule Process in the Planning Phase has 4 outputs - 

Project Schedule

Project Schedule

Schedule data

Project Calendars

Note: As things change during a project, you can make changes to the Project Schedule by editing the Gantt chart with new Start or Finish dates for tasks as required.