Import a programme and set the baseline

Import the programme from its exchange file so the activities, durations, logic links and WBS come across without being rekeyed line by line.

Proč: Retyping a programme of a few hundred activities loses the logic that makes it a programme. Importing keeps the network intact so the critical path is real, not redrawn from memory.

Confirm the calendars, the logic links and the WBS survived the import, and that the completion date matches the source, before anyone trusts a date on it.

Proč: Exchange files drop constraints and remap calendars silently. Catching a shifted completion date now is far cheaper than discovering the imported programme was wrong three months in.

Freeze the agreed programme as the baseline, the fixed reference the job will be measured against for the rest of its life.

Proč: The baseline is the promise. Without a frozen one there is nothing to compare progress to, and every slippage argument becomes a matter of opinion instead of a matter of record.

Publish the baseline so the team records progress against it and the planned-versus-actual picture builds from day one.

Proč: A baseline nobody tracks against is a wall decoration. Publishing it turns the programme into a live control that warns you early rather than a document reviewed after the fact.