Using CA Clarity PPM with Microsoft Project › How to Work with Baselines (Microsoft Project)

How to Work with Baselines (Microsoft Project)

You can save a baseline of the project from Microsoft Project or from CA Clarity PPM. You can keep a copy of the schedule now, or at any point, by saving a baseline.

The baseline is saved with the resources time-varying rate at the time a baseline revision takes place.

Note: You must have Project - Modify Baseline rights for the project to save a baseline.

Microsoft Project 2000

Microsoft Project 2000 can support only a single baseline.

When opening the project in Microsoft Project:

• A maximum of 11 baseline revisions is sent; one is marked as the Current revision.
• Information about the current revision is saved to the .MPP file and updated on the project plan in Microsoft Project.

  Note: If no baseline revisions are sent from CA Clarity PPM, CA Clarity PPM Schedule Connect ensures that the baseline information in the .MPP and on the project plan are cleared in Microsoft Project.

When saving the project to CA Clarity PPM, CA Clarity PPM Schedule Connect checks for baseline information. If the plan has:

• A baseline:
  • The baseline revision is sent and includes all information from the .MPP file. If no information is available from the .MPP file, the baseline revision is new, and the default ID, name, and description is used.
  • Baseline detail records are sent as needed.
• No baseline. If no baseline information is available from the .MPP file, no baseline revision information is sent to CA Clarity PPM.

Microsoft Project 2002 and later

Microsoft Project 2002 and later can support up to 11 baselines. Multiple baselines are managed by saving each revision to baseline slots in the .MPP file. For example, the information for the Current revision is saved to the baseline slot, a previous baseline revision is saved to the baseline1 slot, and so on up to baseline10.

When opening the project in Microsoft Project:

• A maximum of 11 baseline revisions is sent in descending order by the last date modified; one is marked as the Current revision.
• Information about each revision is saved to the .MPP file.
• The Current revision is used to update the project plan's baseline information and the any remaining baseline revisions are used to update the project plan's other baseline slots (i.e., baseline1 through baseline10) in the order they are received.
• If the project in Microsoft Project has baseline information for which no matching revision information is received, that baseline is cleared.
• If no baseline revisions are sent, all baseline information in the .MPP file is cleared in Microsoft Project.

When saving the project to CA Clarity PPM, CA Clarity PPM Schedule Connect checks each possible baseline slot in the project, starting with the baseline slot and ending with the baseline10 slot:

• If a baseline slot has information, the revision information from the .MPP file is sent to CA Clarity PPM.
• If no information is available from a baseline slot from the .MPP file, the revision is new and the default ID, name and description is used for the revision. For example, if the information is from the baseline3 slot, the number 3 is appended to the default ID, name, and description.

  Note: If the .MPP file contains information for a revision whose matching baseline slot is empty, CA Clarity PPM Schedule Connect sends the revision information to CA Clarity PPM with a Delete flag, which tells CA Clarity PPM to delete the baseline revision.