GAO - Schedule Assessment Guide

Updated: Aug 24

The "GAO-16-89G" Schedule Assessment Guide document outlines best practices for project scheduling, emphasizing the importance of a comprehensive and integrated approach. Key points include:

Capturing all activities: Ensuring the schedule reflects all work necessary to achieve project objectives, incorporating both owner and contractor tasks.
Sequencing activities: Logically organizing tasks to ensure critical deadlines are met, with a focus on minimizing and justifying date constraints and lags.
Assigning resources: Allocating necessary resources (labor, materials, etc.) to all activities and understanding their availability and constraints.
Establishing durations: Realistically determining how long each task will take, using historical data and assumptions where applicable.
Ensuring traceability: Verifying the schedule is horizontally and vertically traceable, linking products and outcomes to sequenced activities.
Validating the critical path: Identifying and focusing on activities that directly impact the project's completion date.
Managing float: Ensuring total float is reasonable, allowing for schedule flexibility without impacting the project's finish date.
Conducting risk analysis: Incorporating schedule risks into a statistical simulation to predict completion dates and identify high-priority risks.
Updating the schedule: Regularly reflecting actual progress and maintaining schedule logic to provide accurate forecasts.
Maintaining a baseline schedule: Establishing a target schedule subject to configuration management to track performance and manage changes effectively.

These practices aim to create a reliable schedule foundation for successful project management and execution.

Full document can be downloaded below.