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Boost your project’s success with the Baseline feature in the new Microsoft Planner

SakshiMunjal's avatar
SakshiMunjal
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
May 09, 2024

Baseline is now available in the new Microsoft Planner premium plans (formerly known as Project for the web projects). With the capability, users can capture the state of a plan at a specific moment. It serves as a reference point against which the project's current progress is compared. As your project evolves, referring to this Baseline helps you determine if you're on track or if adjustments are necessary. 

 

All Project Plan 3 and above users can leverage this feature by launching the new Planner app in Teams and then proceeding with the following steps: 

 

Setting Your Baseline: If you haven't set a Baseline yet, simply navigate to the Baseline button and select "Create baseline". Voilà! Your project's Baseline is recorded. 

 

Create Baseline

 

Monitoring Progress: Return to this Baseline at any point to evaluate your project's status, ensuring you're moving as planned. 

 

Baseline Status

 

If you do not have a premium Project license, you can simply click on the diamond icon within the app where you can begin your free 30-day trial of advanced capabilities – including Baseline in Planner or proceed with requesting a premium license.

 

Stay tuned for more updates on task level variances. Keep an eye on Microsoft 365 Roadmap - View Latest Updates | Microsoft 365 for more details. Your feedback is valuable as we continue to release new capabilities. There are several ways to share your feedback with us. You can share feedback through the new Planner app in Teams directly. You can also send us your feedback via the Planner Feedback Portal.

 

FAQs 

 

Can I import my Baselines from Project Desktop and/or other tools? 

No, Baselines cannot be imported to Project for the web while importing the project. 

 

Can I create multiple Baselines? 

You can capture only one Baseline at the moment. To have an updated Baseline, you can delete the existing one and recapture the current state of project. 

 

Are only project level details being captured? 

No, it also records specific details for each task, including start and finish dates, percent completion, duration, and work. It's important to note that while task-level data is present in Dataverse, it is currently not available on the user interface. However, plans are underway to make this information accessible in the future. Stay tuned for updates on this.  

 

Can I export the details I captured? 

Project and task level details will be stored in Dataverse and can be exported from there. 

Updated May 11, 2024
Version 3.0

3 Comments

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  • Projectman009's avatar
    Projectman009
    Copper Contributor
    Nov 15, 2024

    In Project for the web, the baseline functionality is relatively simple compared to MS Project Desktop. It only allows for a comparison between the actual project finish date and the baseline finish date. It does not support comparing the baseline start and finish dates of individual tasks with their actual start and finish dates. This comparison is crucial as it helps project managers identify delays in individual tasks and understand their impact on the overall project timeline. By recognizing these delays, project managers can allocate resources more effectively to prevent further delays and keep the project on track.

    Therefore, in future updates to Planner, could the inclusion of "Actual Finish" and "Actual Start" fields in the task details be considered? This enhancement would allow project managers to directly compare planned and actual dates for each task. By setting "Actual Finish" and "Actual Start" as inherent fields in the task details, the auto-rescheduling for tasks with dependencies would be more accurate and reflective of real project progress. This means that if a task finishes later than planned, the dependent tasks would automatically adjust their start dates based on the actual finish date, ensuring that the project schedule remains realistic and up-to-date.

    • ARBAN's avatar
      ARBAN
      Copper Contributor
      Dec 04, 2024

      This will be coming soon:
      https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=414530

  • Alexis_Tonnerre's avatar
    Alexis_Tonnerre
    Copper Contributor
    May 22, 2024

    Quite excited about the new planner capabilities coming up, especially regarding "premium" features (previously within P4W).

     

    However exporting Projects and Tasks from the Dataverse is one thing, however it seems impossible to import tasks within Dataverse (and therefore Planner) without having a very (very) costly Project Operations license : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/project-operations/project-management/schedule-api-preview

     

    Being able to interface Planner with other systems via API to add Tasks within the Dataverse with Plan 1 licences seems like a basic requirement for tool existing at the heart of the MS ecosystem !