Baselines & Change Tracking
Jira Gantt chart baselines that show exactly where your schedule shifted
Save a snapshot of your project schedule at any point. Then compare it to your current timeline — side by side, right on the Gantt chart. Variance indicators tell you instantly which tasks slipped, which ones are ahead, and which ones stayed on track.
What you get
- ✓ Up to 10 baseline snapshots per project, each with a name and timestamp
- ✓ Side-by-side baseline bars alongside your current schedule on the timeline
- ✓ Variance indicators: green (On Schedule), yellow (Variance), red (Critical)
- ✓ Full audit trail tracking every change: date moves, dependency edits, phase updates
- ✓ Filter change history by task, user, change type, or date range
- ✓ Before/after values for every modification — see exactly what changed
- ✓ Click any change entry to navigate directly to the affected task
Baseline snapshots that capture your plan at a point in time
A baseline is a frozen copy of your project schedule — every task's start date, end date, duration, and dependencies as they were when you saved it. Create a baseline before a sprint starts, before a stakeholder review, or at any milestone. You can save up to 10 baselines per project, name each one, and switch between them to compare different versions of your plan.
When a baseline is active, Simple Gantt renders it as a second bar beneath each task on the timeline. The original planned dates appear in a muted color, and your current dates appear above them. At a glance, you see where the schedule expanded, contracted, or held steady.
Visual variance indicators for your Jira Gantt chart
Each task shows a variance status when a baseline is active. Green means the task is on schedule or ahead. Yellow means there's a moderate variance — the task has shifted but isn't critically late. Red means the variance has crossed a critical threshold and needs attention.
These indicators appear in the task list and on the timeline, so you can scan a large project and immediately spot trouble areas. No need to compare dates manually — the color coding does the work for you.
Complete change history and audit trail
Beyond baselines, Simple Gantt tracks every modification to your project in real time. Every date change, dependency addition, phase reassignment, and task update is logged with a timestamp, the user who made the change, and the before/after values.
Filter the change history by specific tasks, users, change types, or date ranges. When a deadline moves and someone asks "who changed this and when?" — the answer is one click away. The audit trail also helps during retrospectives, giving your team a factual record of how the schedule evolved over the course of the project.
How teams use baselines
Project managers save a baseline at the start of each phase or sprint. During status meetings, they toggle the baseline on and walk stakeholders through what changed and why. The visual comparison replaces vague "we're a bit behind" statements with specific data: "These three tasks slipped by a combined eight days, and here's what's driving it."
The audit trail is equally valuable after the project ends. During retrospectives, teams review the change history to identify patterns — recurring scope creep, estimation issues on certain task types, or dependency changes that caused cascading delays. This data makes the next project more predictable.
Built on Atlassian Forge — your baseline data and change history stay within Atlassian infrastructure.