Key Points

• Before tracking actual work in a project plan, you should save a baseline. This gives you a “snapshot” of your initial project plan for later comparison against actual progress. This is one way to tell if your project is on track or not.

• The ability to track actual work in a project plan is a major advantage that a real project management tool like Project has over list-keeping tools like Excel. In Project, you can track actual work at a very broad or very granular level.

• The Project Guide helps you set up your project plan correctly for the level of tracking you want to do.

• To properly evaluate a project’s status after you begin tracking requires a combination of recording accurate data in Project and using your good judgment when interpreting the results.