A schedule is a forecast with a signature.
CPM baselines in Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project, built with the people who will do the work. Every activity tied, every constraint explained, every date one you can stand behind in a board meeting or a deposition.
Where baselines break first.
The date came before the logic
The opening was promised, then durations were squeezed until the bars fit. The first honest update tells everyone, usually in front of the board.
A critical path the software invented
Open ends, hard constraints and lags standing in for real ties. P6 still prints a red line. It just is not the path that will decide your finish.
Nobody in the field signed it
A schedule the superintendents never saw becomes the owner’s document. The job gets run from a whiteboard, and the two drift apart every week.
How we build a baseline.
- 01
Contract first, bars second
Milestones, access dates, liquidated damages, owner-furnished equipment and permit windows go in before a single trade activity. The schedule has to match what was signed.
- 02
One WBS for time and money
The breakdown matches the estimate and the cost codes, so the same baseline can be cost-loaded and measured with earned value later.
- 03
Durations from the people who own them
Pull-planning sessions with each trade lead. They set the sequence and the duration, and they put their names on it.
- 04
Long-lead equipment as real work
Switchgear, generators, chillers and steel carry submittal, approval, fabrication and delivery activities, each with a required-on-site date.
- 05
Scored before it is issued
Every baseline passes DCMA-style checks for logic, float, constraints, leads, lags and duration before you see it.
What lands on your desk.
Scoped to your project and delivered in native files your team owns.
A fully logic-tied, resource-aware schedule with a clear critical path, in native files your team owns and can run.
Every calendar, constraint, assumption and duration source written down, so the baseline can be defended a year from now.
A board and lender view that traces line by line back to the detailed schedule. No separate slide-deck dates.
Required-on-site dates for every long-lead item, worked back to the latest day each purchase order can be released.
The scored results of our logic, float and constraint tests, with each exception listed and explained in plain words.
The contractor’s baseline looked fine.
A common first call: a baseline submittal sits on the owner’s desk, the finish date matches the contract, and something feels wrong. We score the file, find the hard constraints holding the date in place, rebuild the logic with the trades and issue a baseline whose finish is earned, not typed in.
- 14
- Health checks before issue
- 0
- Open ends we accept
- XER
- Native files you own
See it in the work.
Confidential projects where these controls apply, and a live instrument you can run on the shared Controls Lab schedule.
Questions owners ask us.
Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project?
Both. Most capital programs run in P6 and many owners and builders run Microsoft Project. You get native files you own, not a PDF.
How long does a baseline take?
It depends on size and how much design is done. A focused building schedule can take a few weeks; a large program takes longer. You get a firm timeline after the first conversation.
Can you fix a baseline that is already submitted?
Yes. We remove false constraints, repair the logic and resubmit with a clear record of what changed and why. An Independent Schedule Review is often the first step.
We build the same kind of facility again and again. Does that help?
A great deal. Once the WBS and logic library exist, the next baseline starts from proven work. Ask about a Program Rate for repeat or similar projects.
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