# Baseline & Milestones (Project Detail Page)

## What is it?

A baseline freezes a project's currently calculated schedule (sequence
start/end, milestone due dates) under a name. Delay can only be measured once
a baseline is active — before that there's no reference point against which a
shift would be detectable. A project can collect several named baselines
(e.g., "Kickoff plan", "Baseline after change request 3") and switch between
them; only one is active at any given time.

Milestones are important dates in the project's course. They appear directly
in the milestones card on the project detail page (instead of a separate
section) as well as diamonds in the schedule (Gantt). Their status
("Reached"/"Open") can be toggled in both places.

Once a baseline is active, every milestone, like sequences, has its own
planned/actual comparison: "planned" is the frozen `baselineDueDate`, "actual"
is the actual completion date (`completedAt`) or — while the milestone is
still open — a forecast against today. If actual deviates from planned, a
small day-count badge appears in the milestones card (▲ delay, ▼ early;
italic = forecast, not yet done), and in the Gantt chart a dashed outline
diamond appears at the planned date in addition to the colored actual
diamond. The planned/actual toggle at the top of the schedule
("Planned"/"Actual"/"Both") also shows or hides these milestone diamonds
accordingly.

## How to use it

- **Creating a baseline:** Via the "Approve plan"/baseline button at the top
  of the project detail page → "New baseline". A name is required. The newly
  created baseline immediately becomes the active one.
- **Switching baselines:** In the same menu, under "Saved baselines", select a
  different baseline and confirm "Activate" — it becomes the new reference
  point for the delay display. The baseline's frozen snapshot remains
  unchanged.
- **Deleting a baseline:** Trash icon next to the baseline in the list. If it
  was active, the last measured delay remains until a new baseline is
  activated or the baseline is discarded entirely.
- **Discarding a baseline:** "Discard baseline" fully removes the delay
  measurement (no reference point left) but doesn't delete any saved named
  baselines.
- **Marking a milestone as reached:** Click the circle/checkmark next to the
  milestone in the milestones card, or the diamond in the schedule (Gantt) —
  both toggle the same status.

## Common issues

- **"New baseline" is disabled.** There's no calculable schedule yet — that
  requires at least one sequence with a fixed start time.
- **Delay is shown as "Forecast".** Work is still in progress; the comparison
  is between the current plan (or today) and the active baseline. The delay
  is only final once the project is actually finished.
- **Progress display stays below 100% even though all test cases have a
  status.** Aborted test cases (status "Aborted") count as open work, not as
  done — unlike skipped ones, which are deliberately excluded from the
  calculation as not needed. An aborted test case without a result must
  either be completed or set to "Skipped" for progress to reach 100%.

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Source: https://www.testlabiq.com/en/help/project-baseline