Best Practice 5: Verifying That the Schedule Is Traceable Horizontally and Vertically

Key Questions

  1. Is all logic in place and has the technical content of the schedule been validated?

  2. Are major hand-offs and deliverables easily identified in the schedule? How are major hand-offs and deliverables negotiated and monitored?

  3. Has horizontal traceability been demonstrated by observing the effects of delaying an activity by many days within the schedule or a similar shock to the network?

  4. Are the key dates consistent between lower-level detailed working schedules and higher-level summary schedules? Do all lower-level activities roll up into higher WBS levels?

  5. Do major milestones map between the schedule and management documents and presentations?

Key Documentation

  1. All representations of the schedule are given as of a specific time. These may include different levels of the same schedule used in presentations as well as schedule representation using different platforms (scheduling or presentation packages) for different audiences.

  2. The integration between summary, intermediate, and detailed schedules is demonstrated.

Likely Effects If Criteria Are Not Fully Met

  1. If the schedule is not horizontally traceable, there may be little confidence in the calculated dates or critical paths.

  2. Unless the schedule is horizontally traceable, activities whose durations are greatly extended will have no effect on key milestones.

  3. Schedules that are not horizontally integrated may not depict relationships between different program elements and product hand-offs. When this happens, hand-offs of project subcomponents cannot be fully traced to the end product, leading to less effective program management.

  4. Vertical traceability provides assurance that the representation of the schedule to different audiences is consistent and accurate. Without vertical traceability, there may be little confidence that all consumers of the schedule are getting the same correct schedule information.

  5. Any logic errors between summary, intermediate, and detailed schedules will cause inconsistent dates between schedules and will cause different expectations between management and activity owners.

  6. Unless the schedule is vertically traceable, lower-level schedules will not be consistent with upper-level schedule milestones, affecting the integrity of the entire schedule and the ability of different teams to work to the same schedule expectations.