BASELINE IDENTIFICATION & ANALYSIS

What Is It

Baseline identification and analysis is a process to produce a baseline set of risks that exists at a particular point in time in a project. Driven by the project's needs and resources, the process will consist of a sequence of methods and tools that will be used to identify and analyze the existing risks. Baseline identification and analysis is usually followed by Baseline Planning in which the project develops mitigation plans for the top N risks.

When To Use

Use this method

• To establish a baseline of existing risks early in a project development phase (e.g., during requirements definition).
• To determine the risks a project proposal should address, or even to decide if a proposal should be submitted at all.
• To periodically re-establish the baseline during completion of project milestones (e.g., during critical design reviews) to provide the project manager with a periodic overview of project status in terms of probable success.

Benefits

This method

• Is a good start to risk management.
• Provides a large amount of project risks with which to get motivated to do risk management.
• Provides an early set of risks and their relative importance to effectively allocate resources for mitigation.
• Provides a periodic checkpoint of the project status and probable success if used throughout the project life cycle.