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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
Apr 18, 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. 

 

Capture Baseline

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

Baseline Details

 

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 12, 2024
Version 3.0

28 Comments

  • owarrak's avatar
    owarrak
    Copper Contributor

    Hi

     

    Are you able to detail a little more how to do this? I am currently working in the new version of Planner in the new Teams and also the online version of Project but cannot find the new baseline feature.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Omar

  • ChadOlsonSensei's avatar
    ChadOlsonSensei
    Copper Contributor

    DanielMonger - The Baseline feature is also in the web interface for Project for the web. It works in both default and named (non-default) environments. It is not in US Govt cloud tenants as of this writing.

  • DanielMonger's avatar
    DanielMonger
    Brass Contributor

    Noticing the screenshots are from within teams, do we assume that this is only for projects created in the Dataverse 'Default' environment? Would be better to have it in other production environments since the default environment does not allow backups which has made Government customers of ours choose non-default environments. 

  • daibt's avatar
    daibt
    Brass Contributor

    That's a good start, but actually having a baseline doesn't help much for project managers, they need a lot of baselines to monitor the project.

  • psawyer's avatar
    psawyer
    Iron Contributor

    THANK YOU!!!  This is a great start.  Keep the updates coming Microsoft!  I just migrated my PMO to Project for the Web and I was going to build out Baseline functionality with custom tables, and PowerAutomate.  Now I won't have to, if the update gets pushed down to my soon enough!   I can't thank you enough for the exceptional timing.

  • RodFromm's avatar
    RodFromm
    Iron Contributor

    This a good start but being limited to one baseline is not very useful.  When does Micrsoft plan on allowing multiple baselines and how many? Opinions will vary, but I would expect the limit to be around 10-12 baselines. Lastly, is the task level baseline data accessible via Power BI?