New Baseline Feature?

Joe Wadlinger · 01/05/21

Engage 2020 announced this

4. New developments 2021

4.1 Baselines in Project plans – many teams want to measure actual performance vs planned performance. The way to do this in Smartsheet is to use 2 sets of dates – actual Start and Finish dates and Planned Start & Finish. The functionality is being released where you can see these in a gantt view. We are really excited to see this launch and know customers are going to find this useful.

Map and compare Actual dates vs Planed dates
Track deviations

When will this be available for use in 2021?

Genevieve P. · 05/05/21

@Joe Wadlinger & @Emma Harris

Here is the release announcement posted in the Community!

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/79082/introducing-baselines-for-project-management-available-now

Paul Newcome · 01/05/21

I haven't heard a release date yet, but I am definitely looking forward to it myself.

Sarah Donnelly · 01/05/21

I'm looking forward to this too. Crossing fingers it might be sooner in 2021 than later.

Our CEO has asked me to try setting up our Strategic Plan in Smartsheet so she could easily provide progress updates to our Board but one of the 'must haves' is to visualize the comparison/deviations between the planned completion dates for initiatives vs. actual completion dates. Our Board needs/wants to easily see how many times an initiative was delayed/rescheduled. I tried to make something work with conditional formatting and helper columns but it seemed like it would be more complicated for the end user (our CEO) than her current Excel sheet, so we stopped.

I'm hoping the Baselines in Project plans functionality is the answer I need to complete this project for my CEO.

Paul Newcome · 01/05/21

@sdonnelly In the mean time, have you done a search here in the community for baselining? There is a solution floating around here somewhere that involves a copy of the sheet and a report. It isn't the cleanest view in the world, but if set up properly can provide a pretty decent comparison between planned vs actual.

To track how many times a project was delayed/rescheduled... There is a way to at least track counts/dates utilizing a Copy Row automation and some formulas with cross sheet references.

Would you be interested in either/both of those solutions until baselining is rolled out?

Andrée Starå · 01/05/21

Hi @Joe Wadlinger & @Paul Newcome & @sdonnelly

If I'm not mistaken, it's planned to be released this month, but it might have been delayed.

I can't wait!

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic day & Happy New Year!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Paul Newcome · 01/06/21

@Andrée Starå That will certainly be nice to have. Between that and the new date stamp automation, all we are missing is simplified time calculations. Haha.

Joe Wadlinger · 01/07/21

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/273942#Comment_273942

I appreciate the info but can't mark your post as answering the question as it is still a guesstimate. Does smartsheet monitor these questions to answer them? Or is it only users?

Andrée Starå · 01/07/21

@Joe Wadlinger

Happy to help!

No worries!

Yes, Smartsheet monitors the community, but they usually don't give any specific release dates for features except at the Engage conference.

The best estimate I can give would be Q1.

Genevieve P. · 01/07/21

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/274210#Comment_274210

Hi @Joe Wadlinger,

The Community is a place where you can talk to and collaborate with other users, but we do have Smartsheet Moderators (like myself) who review the content being discussed and ensure that it's accurate and appropriate for the Community.

As @Andrée Starå noted, Smartsheet does not have an ETA for the baseline release yet, but please feel free to subscribe to our Release Notes page (here) so that you are notified as soon as there are any updates on this feature.

Cheers!

Genevieve

Community Moderator

Don Young · 04/16/21

During the Oct 1 Engage keynote , it was either Mark or Gene that said this feature was coming in January. I'm not meaning to throw stones here...I know from personal experience how difficult it is to accurately plan and meet new product development schedules. It would be nice however to see an update, as I had communicated internally that this feature was coming in January and am feeling foolish that we still don't have it and have no clue when it is coming if at all anymore.

Joe Wadlinger · 04/16/21

Well we're into the 2nd Quarter of 2021 and still no word on baselining. I see Smartsheet rolled out new bells and whistles but, I guess meat and potatoes (aka baseline) isn't flashy enough for them to work on. Sheesh!👎️

Emma Harris · 05/05/21

I see there's a greyed out button on the menu bar for Baselines, but it doesn't do anything. Is this an exciting pre-cursor or is it greyed out because I don't have the right license?

Andrée Starå · 05/05/21

Hi @Emma Harris

I hope you're well and safe!

It's released! 😃

Do you have a Start and End date set in the project settings?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Joe Wadlinger · 05/05/21

Is this only available in GANNT view?

Genevieve P. · 05/05/21

Hi @Emma Harris

Our team is working on releasing this feature today! I'll comment again on this thread once there is a Release announcement.

In the meantime, please review the content in this Help Center article: Set Baselines on a Project Sheet

Note that in order to set a Baseline you must be the Sheet Owner or Admin (which is potentially why your button is greyed out.)

Cheers,

Genevieve

Andrée Starå · 05/05/21

Hi @Joe Wadlinger

I hope you're well and safe!

Yes, it's only in Gantt view.

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

New Baseline Feature?

4. New developments 2021

Best Answer

Answers

Categories