Now we have seen the use of baselines to measure how a project schedule changes over time. We have seen how to create and manage baselines, how to convert and restore them, how to update them, and how to assign them for reporting purposes. We have also seen how these schedules are updated with actual data.

If you are curious about the many ways to use baselines, look up the topic Milestone Trend Analysis on the Web. This powerful technique uses baselines and project milestones to view the trajectories of various project elements so that potentially dangerous trends can be observed and handled proactively.

At the end of all the work of creating baselines and updating your progress, one day your project comes to a close and the schedule is complete. But of course once you have successfully closed a project, it is time to create a new one! In the next chapter we look at creating new projects using templates, and we show how to create templates with the data you have collected in existing projects.