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Project Management vocabulary · Schedule & Time

Baseline

Meaning in project management, with examples

/ˈbeɪslaɪn/nounCommon term

In project management, baseline means: The approved version of a project's scope, schedule or budget, saved so that real progress can be compared against it later.

In Turkish: temel plan, referans plan, baz çizgi

How it is used

Used in planning tools and formal reports. You set, approve, update or re-baseline a plan. People talk about the schedule baseline, cost baseline and scope baseline, and measure variance against them.

Example sentences

  1. Compared with the baseline, we are three weeks late and 8% over budget.

  2. After the sponsor approved the new scope, we set a new baseline for the schedule.

Common collocations

  • set a baseline
  • schedule baseline
  • cost baseline
  • re-baseline the plan
  • against the baseline
  • project planA document, or set of documents, that explains how a project will be carried out: its scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks and how it will be controlled.
  • earned valueThe planned budget value of the work actually completed so far. Comparing it with planned value and actual cost shows whether a project is ahead or behind and under or over budget.
  • change requestA formal request to change something already agreed in the project, such as the scope, schedule or budget. It is assessed and then approved or rejected.
  • timelineThe planned order and dates of the main activities and milestones of a project, often shown as a line or chart.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Schedule & Time

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