Planning and Baseline Development
Core concepts
A defensible baseline begins with a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that decomposes scope into manageable control accounts. Each control account has a Control Account Manager (CAM) and a budget. The Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) is the time-phased budget for all authorized work, excluding management reserve. Key planning artifacts include the WBS dictionary, the integrated master schedule, the responsibility assignment matrix (RAM), and the organizational breakdown structure (OBS). Undistributed budget (UB) is authorized work not yet assigned to a control account; management reserve (MR) is held for unplanned scope within the authorized total; contingency reserve covers known risks.
Traps to watch
Questions often test what belongs in the PMB: management reserve does NOT, but undistributed budget and contingency for known risks generally do. Another trap is confusing the RAM (maps work to organizations) with the WBS (maps scope). Candidates must recognize that a baseline is only valid when it is time-phased, resource-loaded, and traceable to the schedule. Watch for items testing that the sum of control account budgets plus UB plus MR equals the total allocated budget (TAB), which equals the contract budget base (CBB) including negotiated profit/fee.
Rule of thumb
PMB = sum of control account budgets + undistributed budget + contingency (for known risks). Management reserve sits outside the PMB but inside the CBB/TAB.
Worked example
Total allocated budget = $500,000. Management reserve = $50,000. Control account budgets = $420,000. Then undistributed budget + contingency = $500,000 − $50,000 − $420,000 = $30,000. PMB = $450,000 (CBB minus MR).