Writing a schedule narrative the owner will read
On the 5th, your update goes to the owner as a 460-activity PDF and a one-line email: "Updated schedule attached; completion unchanged." Three weeks later the owner's project manager asks why nobody told her that the elevator now drives the finish, and that it is waiting on her. It was on page 9.
Write down what the update shows, in the order the owner needs it: the forecast finish, the critical path and how it moved, delays and their causes, the changes you made to the schedule, and what you need from others, with dates. A schedule shows dates, not reasons, and a finish date can hold while the path moves onto the owner's own decisions. Describe that path by the work it carries, so a reader who has never opened your scheduling software can understand which answer you need and what a late answer would hold up.
In this order
- Status: the data date, the forecast finish against the contract date and last month's forecast, in working days, and the critical path's float.
- The critical path in words: the chain from today to the finish, by activity name, what it ran through last month, and anything newly critical.
- Progress: the few activities that mattered, planned against done, and the next period's main work.
- Delays: the cause, the effect on the finish and the date of any notice. Report every delay; the notice itself goes separately, as notice of change explains.
- Changes to the schedule: activities added or deleted, logic or durations changed. The US General Services Administration's schedule clause requires a written narrative for each revision: its substance, rationale and effect on the projected substantial completion date and the available float.
- Needed from others: owner decisions, consultant reviews and the owner's contractors, each with a date and the days a late answer costs.
Common mistakes
- "See attached" as the narrative.
- Walking through every activity, so the change that matters is lost.
- Leaving out the shortened duration that holds the finish.
- Blame instead of facts and dates.
Checklist
Before you send it
- Finish against the contract date and last month
- Critical path in words, with what changed
- Every delay: cause, effect, notice date
- Every change to logic or durations, with its reason
- Decisions needed, with dates and the cost of lateness
- One page
Check your understanding
The finish holds only because you shortened three critical drywall activities, one after another, by two working days each. What does the narrative say?
