Explore what-if scenarios

Every project has open questions that a single schedule can't answer. Can we still finish on time if we run the governance approvals in parallel instead of in sequence? What happens if the boiler permit slips a month? Is the derisked plan worth the extra cost? A scenario lets you try the change on a safe copy of the schedule, see the effect, and compare it to your real plan — without touching the plan of record until you decide to.

Note: A scenario is a branch of your schedule — an isolated copy you can edit freely. Your main schedule doesn't change while you work in a scenario. When you're happy with it you can apply it back to the main schedule; if not, you leave it as a draft or discard it. Think of it like a sandbox for a specific question.

Step 1 — Turn a question into a scenario

Start from the open question and create a scenario named after it. You'll find scenarios under Scenarios in the project tree; Owl can create one for you, or you can branch the current schedule.

Ask Owl
Create a scenario called 'Full Governance Parallelization' where the permit, design-review, and procurement approvals run in parallel instead of one after another.
Branch a scenario and push the boiler permit a month later, then let everything downstream reflow.

Naming each scenario after its question keeps them legible later — in this project the scenarios read as a list of experiments: Full Governance Parallelization, Conservative Governance Overlap, Derisked Schedule, Fix Boiler Training Sequencing.

Step 2 — Make the change safely

Open the scenario and edit it like any schedule — resequence tasks, change durations, add or remove work, or ask Owl to make the change. Everything you do stays inside the scenario.

A scenario open in the Gantt: a draft branch showing modified-task count and an Apply to Main Schedule button.1231The scenario opens in its own tab, marked draft.2A running count of what you've changed — here, ~5 modified.3Apply to Main Schedule merges the scenario back into your real plan.

The scenario opens in its own tab, marked draft, with a running count of what you've changed (here, ~5 modified). Your main schedule is untouched the whole time — you can switch back to it at any point to compare.

Tip: Keep each scenario to one question. A scenario that answers "what if we parallelize approvals and add a second crew and push the permit" tells you nothing clean — you can't see which change drove the result. One question per scenario, then compare.

Step 3 — Compare against the main plan

The point of a scenario is the comparison. Owl tracks exactly what differs from the main schedule — the added, modified, and removed tasks — so you can see the effect of your change rather than eyeballing two Gantts. To answer the question with real numbers (finish date, cost, critical-path shift, P50/P90), run analytics against the scenario — see Analyze a scenario.

Ask Owl
Compare this scenario to the main schedule — what's the new finish date and which tasks moved?
Does parallelizing the approvals actually pull the finish in, or does something else become the bottleneck?

Step 4 — Apply it, or leave it as a draft

Once the scenario has answered its question, you decide:

  • Apply to Main Schedule — merge the scenario's changes into your real plan. Use this when the what-if turns out to be the way forward.
  • Leave it as a draft — keep it for the record or for a later conversation, without changing the main schedule.
  • Discard it — the question's answered and you don't need the branch.

Because applying is an explicit, deliberate step, you can explore freely — nothing you try in a scenario affects the plan of record until you choose to merge it.

Caution: Applying a scenario changes your main schedule. Review the diff first, and remember that guardrails re-check the schedule after the merge — a scenario that looked good in isolation might trip a rule once it's back in the main plan.

What to do next

  • Answer the question with numbers — Analyze a scenario points your dashboards and Monte Carlo at a scenario so you can compare P50/P90, cost, and schedule quality side by side with the main plan.
  • Check the merged plan — after applying, find issues to confirm the change didn't break any guardrails.