The fastest way to ruin a schedule is to update it automatically from site. The second fastest is to update it by hand a month late. Verian Mobile is built around the only path between the two we trust: every update from site is checked against the schedule, and a person approves it before it changes anything.
Forty updates, one held
In a typical week on the fictional project we use for examples, forty progress updates arrive from site: percentages, start dates, finishes, a photo or two. Thirty-nine agree with the schedule's logic. One says a tie-in finished before the task it depends on had started. That update is not wrong, necessarily. The site may have found a way. But it cannot go onto the schedule as if nothing happened.
What the check looks for
- A finish before a start, on the task or on its predecessors.
- Progress that goes backwards without a note.
- A date outside the task's current window by more than its float.
- A quantity that exceeds the register it was supposed to come from.
None of these is a verdict. Each is a question, sent back to the person who reported it, with the schedule's view beside it. Most are answered in a sentence.
Why a person, and which person
The person who approves is not the person who reported. It is the one with authority over that part of the schedule: a section lead, a construction manager. They see the week's updates together, with the checks already done, and approve them in one sitting. Then, and only then, the schedule moves, and the forecast with it.
This is slower than automatic by about a day. It is faster than the monthly cycle by about three weeks. And it means that every date on the schedule has a name next to it, which is what you need when the date is challenged.
The same rule on the 3D model
Where a project has a 3D model, the approved updates colour it: built, being built, not yet. The colour of every object points back to a register row, an import, and a date. An update that is held does not change the model. A model that shows the site as it was reported, and only as it was reported, is a model you can put in front of a client.
- Never apply a field update to the schedule without a check.
- Hold what does not add up, with a question, not a rejection.
- The approver has authority over the schedule, not over the report.
- Every date carries a name.