In regards to the area of project management, it is essential when attempting to effectively and properly determine how much progress has been made over the course of a project to determine and establish an effective means of baseline measurement control. One particularly useful way to do this is for the project management team and or the project management team leader to instill and institute and performance maintenance baseline. A performance management baseline refers specifically to an approved course of action for the work to be done on the project against which the ultimate project execution is compared and the variations from the plan is measured in an attempt to control management. The actual performance maintenance baseline when implemented typically conducts an integration of schedule, scope, and project cost parameters. It is also typical that it is found that they may include factors and elements such as technical and quality parameters.
This term is defined in the 3rd edition of the PMBOK but not in the 4th.