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Scheduling

Updating the schedule every week in thirty minutes

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

Friday, 15:30, in the site trailer. The schedule still shows the level 4 deck pour finishing on Monday; it happened yesterday. The last update was five weeks ago, the owner's meeting is first thing next week, and nobody can say whether the finish date has moved.

A hand on a laptop showing a spreadsheet, beside printed floor plans, marker pens and coffee cups on a desk in warm light.
Photo: laura adai on Unsplash

A schedule stops being a forecast once its dates fall behind the site. Updating means recording what actually happened up to a cut-off, the data date, and letting the logic recalculate everything after it; actual progress plus logic is what gives a realistic forecast. Your contract may require a formal update at a set interval; a 2024 review of eleven US state transportation specifications found updates mostly due monthly. A short weekly update keeps the formal one easy and catches slips while they are small.

The thirty-minute routine

  1. Fix the data date, for example Friday at the end of shift. Nothing after it goes in as actual.
  2. Enter actual starts and finishes from the daily reports, not from memory.
  3. Ask each foreman for remaining working days on work in progress, rather than a percentage. A percentage can sit at 90 for weeks.
  4. Correct the logic where work went out of sequence, such as a crew that started before its predecessor finished, and note why.
  5. Read what moved: the forecast finish, the critical path, and every chain whose float fell since last week.
  6. Write three lines — what moved, why, and what you will do — and file them with the update. They become next month's narrative.

Common mistakes

  • Updating percentages but not remaining durations, so the forecast stays optimistic.
  • Overwriting the baseline, so nothing is left to compare against.
  • Changing logic quietly to keep the finish date looking good.
  • Updating in the office without a word from the site.

Checklist

The Friday update

  • Data date set
  • Actual dates entered from the daily reports
  • Remaining days from each foreman
  • Out-of-sequence work corrected and explained
  • Forecast finish compared with last week
  • Critical path and falling float checked
  • Three lines written and filed

Check your understanding

Three critical activities finished late this week, yet the updated schedule shows the same finish date. What do you check first?

Show the answer
Check that the late finishes went in as actual dates and that the data date moved forward; a schedule still showing planned dates cannot move. Then look for a date constraint or a logic change holding the finish in place. If neither explains it, find what won the time back, such as a shortened duration or a new overlap, and confirm it is real.

Sources

  1. Recurring Special Provision 108-C-215: Critical Path Method ScheduleIndiana Department of Transportation · Indiana, United States (one public owner's contract specification) · accessed
  2. Schedule Assessment Guide: Best Practices for Project Schedules (GAO-16-89G), Best Practice 9U.S. Government Accountability Office · accessed
  3. A Comparison of Department of Transportation Progress Scheduling Specifications from Across the NationInstitute for Transportation, Iowa State University, for the Iowa DOT and the Federal Highway Administration · United States (specifications of eleven state transportation departments) · accessed

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