When it comes to managing projects, metrics help identify inefficiencies, celebrate great wins, and capture vital insights on how the work went. There is a multitude of ways to capture metrics in Salesforce, and one of TaskRay’s features is designed specifically for this purpose: Baselining. This feature is part of the Standard TaskRay package. and in this blog post, we will look at how it can be utilized to derive insightful information from projects.
At the core, Baselining allows taking snapshots of projects at any specific moment in time. These snapshots can then be used for reporting to review how a project performed over time to determine what contributed to it staying on track to successful completion or if there were any problem areas that might have occurred. Out of the box, when a baseline is created on a project, it will record some of the basic details, such as dates and task statuses. However, in the event that additional details need to be tracked, TaskRay Baselines can be further customized to incorporate tracking additional information.
With baselining, each project could have several baselines created on it. This could be done manually on an as-needed basis, or it could be automated. Baselining automations can be configured in various ways, such as creating a baseline whenever something specific happens on the project or if the project reaches some sort of benchmark, such as a completed milestone or a percentage of progress. For example, one of the most common use cases for automated baselines is setting them at the time of when the project is first created, and then subsequently at different progress points, such as at a quarter of a halfway point to project completion.
With multiple baselines created on a project, it becomes possible to compare how the project performed over time, whether visually or through reporting. For the visual aspect, TaskRay allows reviewing baselines directly on the Plan View timeline. In this view, a project manager can select any of the previously captured baselines, which will expose a second set of bars on the timeline that will correlate with project and task dates and statuses at the time of when the baseline was created. With the visual reference, the project manager can then easily identify any tasks that were delayed or completed ahead of schedule, along with other vital insights that can be used for future reference.
For more detailed metrics, it is possible to utilize native Salesforce reporting functionality. For this purpose, it might be helpful to understand some basics of TaskRay Baselines architecture. From the architectural standpoint, every time a baseline is set on a project, TaskRay creates a set or “mirrored” Baseline Project, Task Group, and Task records that copy over information from the actual Project, its Task Groups, and its Tasks. And, since those are records in Salesforce, they can be reported on just like any other data in Salesforce.
When reporting on TaskRay Baselines, there will be out-of-the-box fields on the Baseline records that will provide insight into project variances. But, just like with any Salesforce reports, it is possible to pull in additional fields and incorporate formulas and filtering to derive information in the format that is meaningful to the organization.
For more details on using the Baselining feature, refer to our support documentation.
In summary, baselining is a great feature that provides insights into how projects progress over time. This feature allows deriving insights and making thoughtful adjustments to project plans to set them up for success in the long run. But, to take it one step further, baselines can also be combined with the TaskRay On-Hold feature, as well as with the premium-tier Advanced Scheduler. To learn more about supercharging baselines and seeing how it all works together, check out our other blog post on this topic.