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Controls Lab · 10 instruments, one schedule

Run your schedule before it runs you.

Schedule Studio is a working CPM engine in your browser. Load a sample or import your own P6, Microsoft Project or CSV file, and every instrument below tests the same network: its health, its slips, its risk, its crews, its cash and the story you will tell the board.

Instruments
10
Shared CPM network
1
Sample schedules
4
Bytes uploaded
0
How the Lab works

A schedule is a forecast with a signature on it.

  1. Load it.Pick a data center, hospital, highway or substation sample, or import your XER, XML or CSV. The file never leaves this page.
  2. Break it.Score it, slip it, simulate it, compare it with last month and load it with crews and cash. Every instrument reads the same network.
  3. Decide.Price the delay, test the recovery and print a narrative the board can act on. Then let us run it on the real file.
01 · CPM engine

A CPM engine, not a picture of one.

Forward and backward pass, total and free float, FS, SS, FF and SF ties with lags, standard and imported calendars, constraints, progress against a data date, WBS roll-ups and a live Gantt. Edit any cell and the whole network recalculates.

How to type logic, constraints and progress
  • Predecessors use P6 style text: A1020 is finish-to-start, A1020FS+2 adds a two-day lag, A1030SS, A1040FF-3 for a lead, A1050SF. Separate them with commas.
  • Keys: Enter saves and moves down, Shift+Enter moves up, the arrow keys move between rows in text cells, Escape undoes the cell. Ctrl+Z undoes the last change.
  • Durations and lags are working days on the activity calendar. Lags count on the successor calendar. Imported P6 calendars keep their work week and holidays.
  • Progress: enter an actual start to start work, an actual finish to complete it, then set remaining duration. Move the data date and use Status to data date to apply the plan as progress.
  • Retained logic holds out-of-sequence work behind its open predecessors. Progress override lets it run from the data date.
  • Hard constraints (start or finish on or before, mandatory) can create negative float. Must finish by drives the late dates of open ends.
  • Resp. is a responsibility code (owner, trade, vendor). Filter on it with Show. The schedule is saved in this browser only.
How to read it
  • Crimson bars drive the finish. Orange bars are near-critical, inside the float threshold you set.
  • A dashed line after a bar is total float. A hatched strip is negative float: the plan already misses a date.
  • Gold marks are the baseline. Move the data date, press Status to data date, and watch the forecast move.
On a real project

On live projects we run the same discipline in Primavera P6 every month: a fixed data date, retained logic, a frozen baseline and a written note on every change to the longest path.

Have us run it on your schedule Planning & Scheduling
02 · DCMA 14

Fourteen checks. No opinions.

The DCMA 14-point assessment runs on the Studio schedule by itself: logic, leads, lags, relationship types, constraints, float, durations, dates, resources, missed tasks, the critical path test, CPLI and BEI. Click a failed check to see the activities behind it.

Loading the shared schedule

    How to read it
    • Green passes, crimson fails, grey does not apply to this file yet.
    • The score is the share of applicable checks passed. 85 or more means the schedule is fit to forecast from.
    • Passing all fourteen proves the mechanics, not the durations. That still takes a scheduler who knows the work.
    On a real project

    An independent review runs these checks and the ones software cannot, then tells you in writing what to fix before the baseline is approved.

    Have us run it on your schedule Independent Schedule Review
    03 · Forensics

    What slipped, and who moved it.

    Put last month next to this month. Every slip, duration change, new or deleted tie, constraint change, added or deleted activity and critical path change, with a half-step split of the finish movement into field progress and plan revisions.

    Loading the shared schedule

    Prior updateNot chosen
    Current updateStudio schedule

    Why the finish moved

    Half-step: progress first, then revisions

    Float erosion, worst first

    Total float lost since the prior update

    Activity by activity

    How to read it
    • Progress effect is what the field did: the prior network run with this month's actuals. Revision effect is what someone changed in the file.
    • A finish that holds while float erodes is a warning, not good news.
    • Sort any column. Show these in Schedule Studio opens the activities behind the filter.
    On a real project

    Every month we run this comparison on the native P6 files before the update meeting, so the owner hears about logic changes before they become the plan of record.

    Have us run it on your schedule Schedule Updates & Progress
    04 · TIA

    Slip one task. Follow the damage.

    Delay an activity or insert a fragnet, tag who caused it, and watch float absorb it until it reaches the finish. Each event is its own window, so time, liquidated damages and revenue at risk add up the way a claim does.

    Loading the shared schedule

    Event type

    Impacted against unimpacted

    How to read it
    • Float absorbed shows how much of the delay the network hid before the finish moved.
    • Ghost bars are the schedule before the event. Bars that turn crimson joined the critical path.
    • Owner and concurrent days count toward a time extension. Contractor days carry liquidated damages.
    On a real project

    For a real claim we run time impact and windows analysis on the native files, the contemporaneous updates and the as-built record.

    Have us run it on your schedule Delay Analysis & Claims
    05 · Monte Carlo

    Is your date a plan or a hope?

    Thousands of runs of the real network, each with fresh durations, correlated uncertainty and risk events from the register, and a full CPM pass every time. You get P50, P80 and P90 dates, the activities that drive the spread, and the ones hiding behind float.

    Loading the shared schedule

    Risk register
    Ranges per activity

    Blank cells use the percentages above. Durations in working days.

    What drives the spread

    Correlation of each activity with the finish date

    Criticality index

    Share of runs where the activity sat on the critical path
    How to read it
    • The white curve is the chance of finishing by each date. Read across from 80% to find your P80.
    • Crimson bars are the futures that finish after the P80 date.
    • Criticality index is the share of runs where an activity drove the finish. A high index with float in CPM is hidden risk.
    On a real project

    On real schedules we run quantitative risk analysis on the P6 file itself and give boards a P80 date and a contingency they can defend.

    Have us run it on your schedule Schedule & Cost Risk Analysis
    06 · EVM

    Read the pulse before the budget report.

    Planned value from the baseline, earned value from progress, actual cost by month. SPI, CPI, earned schedule, three estimates at completion and the efficiency you would need to land on budget.

    Loading the shared schedule

    How to read it
    • Below 1.00 is behind: SPI in time, CPI in money. Earned schedule turns SPI into months.
    • When the three EAC methods disagree, the honest answer is the range, not the lowest number.
    • A TCPI above 1.10 asks the team for a recovery almost no team achieves.
    On a real project

    We build earned value into the schedule and cost system, so SPI, CPI and a forecast finish come out of every update without anyone retyping a spreadsheet.

    Have us run it on your schedule Project Controls & Earned Value
    07 · Loading

    Crews and cash, straight from the logic.

    Every activity carries a crew and a budget. See each resource on early or late dates against its limit, cost-loaded S-curves for early, late, baseline and actual, and a monthly cash flow a CFO can plan with.

    Loading the shared schedule

    Resource histogram

    Cost-loaded S-curves

    Cumulative budget by month

    Monthly cash flow

    Loading by activity

    How to read it
    • Crimson bars break the crew limit. The dotted line is the same crew on the other set of dates.
    • The gap between the early and late S-curves is float, priced in dollars.
    • Change a crew size or a budget in the table and the histogram, the curves and earned value all follow.
    On a real project

    We cost-load and resource-load the schedule from the estimate, so the cash flow forecast and the crew plan come from the same logic as the dates.

    Have us run it on your schedule Cost Estimating & Budgeting
    08 · Calculator

    What one late day really costs.

    Revenue that has not started, interest on capital already spent, a site team still on the payroll and prices still rising. Set your numbers or pull the slip from the Studio, then see how little the liquidated damages cover.

    Every day late costs about$0

    How to read it
    • Each band is one source of cost per day. The dashed gold line is what liquidated damages give back.
    • Use the Studio slip to price the days the schedule is late right now.
    • Compare an acceleration quote with the daily cost of delay, not with the budget.
    On a real project

    On live projects we put this number at the top of every monthly report, so every acceleration decision is priced in real dollars.

    Have us run it on your schedule Cost Control & Forecasting
    09 · Recovery

    Recovery that moves the finish date.

    Crash, add a shift, fast-track or resequence, each tested against the network. See which options buy days, what each day costs, and why money spent off the critical path buys nothing.

    Loading the shared schedule

    Recovered schedule against today

    How to read it
    • Alone recovers is what each option buys by itself. Together they buy less, because another path becomes critical.
    • An option at zero days is money spent off the critical path.
    • Per day is the price of each day back. Hold it against the cost of delay.
    On a real project

    Our recovery plans test every option against the native schedule, price it, and show the owner the cheapest credible path back to the date.

    Have us run it on your schedule Recovery Planning
    10 · Reporting

    The look-ahead and the story, written.

    A two to six week look-ahead from the data date, grouped by WBS, and a monthly narrative written from the numbers: finish against baseline, the critical path, float erosion, SPI and CPI, and the P80 date. Copy it or print it.

    Loading the shared schedule

    Look-ahead by WBS

    Monthly narrative

    Written from the schedule. Read it before you send it.

    Look-ahead bars

    How to read it
    • Crimson rows are critical, orange rows near-critical. The last column says what happens inside the window.
    • The narrative reads the other instruments. Run the Monte Carlo and Update Compare and it uses their results.
    • Edit the schedule and the narrative rewrites itself. Read it before you sign it.
    On a real project

    Our monthly reports pair this narrative with the cost report and a decision log, so a board reads one page and knows what to approve.

    Have us run it on your schedule Reporting & Dashboards

    Everything here runs in your browser. Files you import and numbers you type are never uploaded, and the working schedule is saved only on this device. The sample schedules are illustrative networks, not client projects.

    From the Lab to your project

    Run this on your real schedule.

    Send the XER or MPP file. A senior project controls lead replies within one business day with what we see and what we would check first.

    Send us your schedule About schedule reviews