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Cases / Planning & controls
Planning & controls

Build a baseline and track progress

Plan the programme, freeze a baseline to measure against, feed real progress back from site and read the variance so slippage surfaces early.

4 steps12 minGeneral contractorProject / construction managerSpecialist subcontractor

How it works, step by step

4 steps across the platform - what you do at each one, and why it matters.

1

Lay out the programme

Schedule

Build out the activities, set a duration on each and link them in the order the trades follow so the critical path falls out. Group the work the way you will report it later, by trade, by zone or by phase.

Why: The programme is your promise on when the job finishes. A clear critical path separates the delays that genuinely push the finish date from the ones that only eat float.

InScope of worksTrade sequenceOutLinked activity programmeCritical path
2

Freeze the baseline

Advanced scheduling

Save the agreed programme as a baseline before a spade goes in the ground. From here on every update is read against this frozen copy.

Why: With no baseline there is nothing to be late against. Freezing it is what converts a plan into a yardstick that holds up when an extension of time is argued.

InAgreed programmeClient sign-offOutFrozen baselineBaseline finish date
3

Capture real progress

Field time

Record actual start and finish dates and the hours booked from the field, so the schedule mirrors what the crews really did this period.

Why: A programme nobody updates is fiction by the second week. Feeding site data back is the only thing that keeps the forecast honest and the completion date believable.

InProgramme activitiesField timesheetsOutActual start and finishBooked labour hours
4

Read the variance

Advanced scheduling

Set the updated programme against the baseline and read the slippage and the remaining float. The advanced view shows the critical path shifting as each progress update lands.

Why: A variance spotted early is still a decision you can make. The whole point of tracking is to act on a two-week slip now, not to document a two-month one at the end.

InUpdated programmeFrozen baselineOutSlippage varianceRemaining float

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