Project schedule review is usually a requirement for the engineer and a strong recommendation for the contractor. An example of schedule review is verifying compliance with the contract specifications and maintaining a logical sequence between activities. The schedule review should be performed on at least two levels and possibly on a third level for deeper analysis of change over time.
The first level performs a number of schedule checks to confirm its integrity and compliance with project specifications. Project schedule review can be conducted over baseline schedules or schedule updates. Schedule review should include a check for basic information in the schedule, in addition to a more detailed probing of its contents. Examples of basic information would be the project name, start/finish dates, and number.
More detailed information can be reviewed such as constraints, critical activities, milestone activities, budgeted cost (for cost loaded schedules), completion date, and any specific contract requirements such as maximum allowed duration for activities.
In case of schedule updates, a second level of schedule review should be performed. Comparing the schedule update with a previous schedule update or to the baseline schedule helps to identify changes, anomalies, and errors. Systematic change detection as a part of the schedule review process can enhance the schedule’s quality. Review of basic changes such as added actual start or actual finish in addition to advanced findings such as increased cost without increase of earned value are expected at that level of schedule review. The third level of schedule review is the schedule update trends. Identifying the trends of different key metrics can be invaluable in realizing the project’s future outlook.
A more detailed explanation of the schedule review process and how Schedule Cracker© software is performing it is presented in the white papers section.