The project customer has just approved your project plan and given you permission to start the project. As the project manager, you must provide status reports at the end of each week, which must include the current project status of schedule and cost, and how those compare to the original plan. What must you do before you begin to execute the project?

A.
In your Project file for the project, display the Tracking Gantt view.

B.
Save a copy of your Project file.

C.
In your Project file for the project, set an interim plan.

D.
In your Project file for the project, set a baseline.

Explanation:
When you set a baseline in Project, the program saves the start and finish dates, durations, work, cost, budget work, and budget cost. Variance fields represent the difference between the baseline values and the current scheduled values for your project, as shown below:

Answer option C is incorrect. In Project, an interim plan saves only start and finish dates. Answer option B is incorrect. A copy of the Project file at the start of the project can be helpful, but you cannot use built-in Project reports to compare the values in two different Project files.
Answer option A is incorrect. The Tracking Gantt view does show task bars for the current progress and separate task bars for the baseline dates but only if you first set a baseline. What is a baseline plan? A baseline plan is an original project plan used to track progress of a project. The baseline plan is a snapshot of the schedule at the time that the baseline is saved. It includes information about tasks, resources, and assignments. Eleven baseline plans can be created in a project.