Flaw #7 Making Changes to a Baseline Schedule
We can all basically agree on what a Baseline Schedule is. What we apparently do not agree on is the representation of a baseline as it progresses through the periodic schedule update process. The General Contractor usually is assigned the responsibility to prepare, manage, maintain, and update the baseline schedule. The GC purchases the software, hires the scheduler as his employee, develops the schedule, plans the project, and updates the work-in-place. One would think that all this effort and expense would make the baseline schedule the personal property of the GC and that the GC can do whatever is considered necessary to justify his personal standards for processing updated progress information.

Once a contractor or general contractor commits to a construction contract, the project becomes his liability and his alone. This includes the baseline project schedule. It is his alone, but only within the confines of the contract specifications. Specifications for baseline schedules require approval from the owner or his assigned representative. However, this approval is limited to contract specifications conformance and generally accepted parameters for construction schedules that are described in the contract specifications. Therefore, once the GC baseline schedule is submitted for review and approved, the GC cannot change the content in the baseline or any baseline update without the approval of the other contract signatory. There are two flaws in this process that seem to happen all the time: 1) the GC makes unauthorized changes to an update prior to submittal and 2) the approving authority does not enforce the specifications properly and fails to require a resubmittal before the next scheduled update. If an unapproved schedule update is carried over to the next progress update, it negates that schedule as a legitimate document, which could have major ramifications.

If it is understood that a baseline schedule is a work-in-progress document, a pre-baseline, it is not the required contract document. When the final contractual baseline is submitted and approved for conformance to the specifications then this final Project Baseline Schedule is the required contract document. This document cannot be changed without the approving authority, because schedules having major changes become new baselines requiring conformance approval again. Acceptance of a revised schedule with major changes supersedes any previous schedule updates going forward. So, it is always in the best interest of all to agree on the initial baseline schedule, not make unilateral changes, and keep its conformance intact.