No date goes untested.
A date is only as good as the network under it. Ours, the contractor’s or yours, every schedule we touch runs the same fourteen checks, then goes to a second senior reviewer.
Fourteen checks, one line each.
Modeled on the DCMA 14-point schedule assessment. Software runs them in minutes. A senior scheduler reads every result and explains it.
Every unfinished activity needs a predecessor and a successor. Open ends hide work nobody has planned yet.
Negative lags let work start before its predecessor finishes. They compress time on paper and nowhere else.
Long waits typed into a tie hide real work, such as cure time or submittal review, that deserves its own activity.
Finish-to-start ties should carry most of the network. Heavy use of other types makes the path hard to trace.
Must-finish-on dates override logic. Use too many and the schedule reports the date someone wanted.
Months of float usually means a missing successor, not a lucky cushion. We find the broken tie.
Negative float means the plan already misses a required date. It needs a recovery path, not silence.
Very long activities cannot be measured honestly. We break them into pieces the field can progress.
No forecast dates in the past and no actual dates in the future, measured against the data date.
Where the contract calls for loading, activities carry the labor, quantities or cost that earned value needs.
Work that should have finished by the data date and did not. A rising count is the earliest warning of a slip.
We add delay to a critical activity. If the finish date does not move by the same amount, the path is broken.
The critical path length index shows whether the remaining path can still make the required finish.
The baseline execution index compares work finished with work planned to finish. It shows whether the plan is being worked.
The methods we follow.
Recognized methods and guidance we work to. They are not certifications or memberships, and we never present them as one.
Critical path method
The foundation under every schedule we build or review: activities, logic, durations, float and a path you can trace.
AACE recommended practices
We follow AACE International recommended practices for planning, schedule risk and forensic schedule analysis.
GAO Schedule Assessment Guide
Its best practices for a reliable schedule shape how we score a baseline and write review findings.
Earned value, EIA-748
We follow the EIA-748 guidelines so SPI, CPI and the estimate at completion tell one consistent story.
Two signatures on every deliverable.
Every baseline, update narrative, risk run and claim exhibit is reviewed by a senior specialist who did not build it, before it reaches you.
- Logic and datesThe reviewer reruns the checks and traces the critical path from the data date to the finish.
- Numbers that tie outCosts, quantities and earned value reconcile to the source files and the latest pay application.
- Plain-English narrativeFindings say what moved, why it moved and what leadership needs to decide.
Your files stay yours.
Schedules, cost reports and claim files are commercially sensitive. We treat them that way from the first email.
Need-to-know access
Only the people assigned to your engagement can open your files, and access ends when the work does.
Controlled sharing
Files move through the transfer method you approve, never through personal email or public links.
Confidential by default
We never name clients or publish project details. Every project on this site is shown with the owner as Confidential.
Put your schedule to the test.
Send us an XER or MPP file. We run the checks and tell you what we find. A senior project controls lead replies within one business day.