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baseline and milestone?

15 replies [Last post]
Sat, 2006-09-30 09:06
Peter Doe
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Hi all,

I am newcomer to be a planner. Thanks beforehand!

I cannot distinguish milestone and baseline. From my understanding, every project only exits 2 milestones for start and end date, and baselines could be ten or twelve depend on the progressing condition. Baseline is assigned ahead of the activities’s implemention and aim to compare with the weekly/monthly actual progress. Right?

Another question is where is the line between a planner and a craft engineer. Because a planner does collect data from engineers, the duty? It probably relates to working procedure.
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Tue, 2012-04-17 08:47
#1
Ismayil Mammadov
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Hi Peter,

when the new Project starts Planner starts making new schedule for the project before it will start. as the schedule finish it will be set as Baseline, and during the project, you will make updates against this baseline, it will allow you to see the diffenrences between the planned and actual works(start, finish, duration times).

Milestone is essetially is the borders between phases and/or time to be highlighted, or decision making stage(go/no go), comissioning start and etc. its essential to have no less no more milestones, they should be reasonable identified. for instance: start date for mobilisation, finish date for structural works, finishing procurement of materials, start date for facade works, comissiong start, and etc. Milestone have no duration.

Regards,

Ismayil

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Sat, 2012-04-14 09:21
#2
Mike Testro
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Hi Yannick

Welcome to Planning Planet

You have just replied to a thread that is 5 years old.

It is not good practice to liven up long dead topics.

Best regards

Mike Testro

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Fri, 2012-04-13 15:11
#3
yannick pilon
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To ashraf alawady:

If you put constraint on a milestone, you may loose your critical path. It is the same effect when you impose start or end date to an activity.

Regards,

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Wed, 2006-12-06 15:28
#4
Tahir Naseem PMP,...
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Dear Ashraf

The advantages of mile stone a lot but some are given as per my experience.
1- It give just in one sentence the current progress of project/phase / unit / discipline etc. Such as Mechanical completion Mile stone
2- Higher management don’t want to be involved in figures and they don’t have enough time always. Then only the intermediate mile stone represent the true picture of project at a glance.
3- In some contracts specially Lump sum the invoice link with the mile stones not actual running progress. For example at one EPC project the procurement payment will be release on the following milestone achieving such as Issue RFQ , Issue P.O, Delivery at site etc, rather then your running progress issue RFQ 50%, issue PO 25%.
4- Also for delay analysis midterm mile stones play vital roles. Easy to understand at different stages project has how much ahead / behind the schedule.
Regards
Tahir

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Sat, 2006-12-02 09:25
#5
Reynaldo Y. Calay...
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hi guys!

for me .....

MILESTONE dates are usually contract dates....
this is to show emphasis or importance on this dates.........this is sometimes where you measure you performance.....lets face it the clients doesnt know primavera...... and sometimes they would just ask for the variance of milestone dates...... and thats it they would have the big picture.......

BASELINE is where you measure your work......baseline is also like a milestone in which you could compare your present performace can be conotated also as target......

c",)

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Sat, 2006-10-07 19:37
#6
Marcio Sampaio
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We also have specific milestones for agreeded dates between high directory from client and contractor. This milestones has constraints because this important dates can not be change.

Regards.
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Sat, 2006-10-07 19:36
#7
Marcio Sampaio
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In the specific case fo the project i’m actualy working, i have many milestones becouse client wants to see all mainly deliverables as milestones and we send reports showing only this milestones.

Regards.
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Sat, 2006-10-07 03:22
#8
ashraf alawady
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Hi,
What are the advantages adn dis advantages of using many milestones in the programme and what are the differences between a milesone with constraint anda milesone without constraint.
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Tue, 2006-10-03 18:02
#9
Peter Doe
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Thanks all!

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Mon, 2006-10-02 20:34
#10
Marcio Sampaio
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U can also have many milestones in a contract - all mainly deliverables.

Regards.
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Mon, 2006-10-02 04:25
#11
Jose Frade
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Hi Ashraf,

Ilustrating my explanation of milestones:

Imagine in you project important actions you need from your client - these actions have to be ready/started/complete in a certain date but is not up to you to plan what
/how your client does his own work.

Site take over by contractor.
Water supply available from client,
Power supply available,
Plant construction licenced
Enviromente licence issued.
supply XXXX
Contract and supply fuel gas.
Grid available to export power.
Et, etc.

These are some typical examples of milestones that normaly are in the scope of Project owner/Client.

Of course they are also normaly linked with actions from you (predecessors) - Eng. submittal, effluent data, Consummer lists for power, etc.

As successors to the milestones you have to add your next activities.

By doing this you show clearly to yourclient exactly what are the impacts if his milestones are not complished in time - avoiding a lot of discussions in the future.

But its up to your client to plan his actions, mobilize his ressources, forward his part of documents, etc,

We show to the client where we need his actions started/finished but we do not plan his own work/actions.

Hope to have contributed to clarify/help.

BR
JMFrade


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Mon, 2006-10-02 03:17
#12
MUHAMMAD IQBAL
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hI

ahraf

your contractor is very nice to you that he is giving you


the intermediate milestones.

Intermediate milestone are helpfull in controlling the different phase of the project
but all of you milstone must be in consistance with your contract


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Mon, 2006-10-02 01:35
#13
ashraf alawady
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Hi,Jose

Normally in any contract we have two contractual milestone
staring date milestone for project starting date and finishing date milestone for project completion date .

If the contractor show in the baseline programme many other
milestones which created by the contractor him self .

Can i reject the contractor proposal to use more milestones

,what are the reasons and what is the effect on the programme if we used more milestones.



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Sat, 2006-09-30 20:37
#14
Peter Doe
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Thanks Jose! Good points and very clear.

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Sat, 2006-09-30 10:58
#15
Jose Frade
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Hello Peter,

Milestones - as the name sais are important phases of your project where a certain event needs to be complete, started, etc.

Baselines - We must not forget that the plan of a certain project is a contractual document (normaly approved by client). Once client approves it then it should be frozen (no changes allowed) and copy into a diferrent name. This contractual baseline normaly can only change with the approval of the client.

Number of baselines - depends on your strategie to control the project: U might want to use previous months status as baseline to compair with achievments (earned value, etc) by the end of next months.

In general a big change in the project causing the previous baseline not anymore executable normaly requires a revision of strategie/ project execution plan/ etc and therefore a new baseline should be created.

I Hope to have contributed for your clarification.

BR
JMFrade
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