Find issues with your schedule#

A schedule that looks fine on the Gantt can still be wrong underneath: an activity with no successor, so a delay to it reaches nothing; a crew booked on three activities at once; a permit review that runs longer than anyone can track. Owl PM watches for these with guardrails, rules it checks on every change, and marks the work that breaks them.

This page is about seeing what's wrong. Once you know, Fix issues with your schedule covers clearing the failures. For what a guardrail is and how to write one, see How guardrails work.

Note: Every project starts with a set of default guardrails: open ends in the logic, activities outside the WBS, overbooked crews, and the DCMA 14-point checks. Owl adds rules from your documents as it builds, and you can add your own at any time.

Where issues show up#

You don't have to go looking for problems. Owl shows them in four places:

• The status pills next to the project name: a red count of guardrails failing as errors and an amber count failing as warnings.
• The Guardrails list in the project tree: every guardrail with a colored dot, green when it passes.
• The Gantt: a pill at the end of each failing bar, naming the guardrail it breaks.
• The project tree and sheets: a resource or deliverable that fails a guardrail carries a badge with the number of guardrails it fails.

Step 1: Read the overall health#

Click the status pills to open the guardrails summary.

123451The status pills: guardrails failing as errors (red) and as warnings (amber).2The headline: how many pass, how many fail within their tolerance, how many fail, and the pass rate.3Needs attention lists the failing guardrails, errors first. Click one to open it.4View all shows the passing ones too.5Revalidate re-checks every guardrail now. Show on Gantt… picks which ones the Gantt draws.

An error (red) is a hard rule that's broken: treat it as a must-fix. A warning (amber) is worth a look but may be acceptable, like a single activity that runs a few days past a duration cap. A guardrail whose failures are within its tolerance ("at most 5% of activities") passes.

Step 2: See the failures on the Gantt#

Each failing activity gets a pill at the end of its bar with the name of the guardrail it breaks, in red for an error and amber for a warning. +2 means it breaks two more.

121A red pill: this activity fails an error, plus three more guardrails.2An amber pill: a warning. The hatching on the bar marks the stretch the resource warning is about.

Click a pill to see every guardrail the activity breaks, why, and what to do next.

1231The activity, and how many guardrails it fails.2Each guardrail it fails, what the rule means, and the value that broke it.3Open guardrail opens its page. Show all filters the Gantt to every activity it flags. Hide on Gantt stops drawing this guardrail.

To choose what the Gantt draws, open Show in the toolbar. Guardrail problems turns the marks on or off, Periods on the axis shades the dates a period check fails, and Which guardrails lists every guardrail with a switch.

12341Guardrail problems: all marks on or off.2Next to the bars: pills, blamed links and hatching.3Periods on the axis: bands over the dates a period check fails.4Which guardrails: pick the ones the Gantt draws.

Note: A few defaults that flag most rows of a typical schedule, such as DCMA 6 (high float), aren't drawn on the Gantt until you switch them on. They're still checked and still count in the status pills.

Step 3: Open a guardrail to see exactly what's wrong#

Click a guardrail in the summary, in the project tree, or on a pill. It opens as its own tab.

12341What the guardrail protects, and whether a failure is an error or a warning.2The rule: which rows it checks and what they must pass.3The rows that fail: each with its dates, its value and what it needed. "15d duration (needs at most 10d)."4Where the failures sit in the WBS.

A guardrail's page tells you the whole story:

• What it checks: the description in words, and the rule underneath it.
• What fails: each failing activity (or resource, relationship, WBS node) with its own value and what it needed. A relationship names its predecessor and successor; a resource lists the periods it's overbooked.
• Where: the WBS branches the failures sit in.

That's the difference between "something's off" and a concrete list you can fix.

Step 4: See every guardrail at once#

To compare all of them, hover Guardrails in the project tree and click the grid icon. The sheet shows every guardrail with what it checks, its severity, and its result: Passing, or how many rows fail.

The Guardrails sheet: one row per guardrail with its table, severity, result and formula.

Add your own checks#

The defaults catch problems any schedule can have. Your project has its own rules, from the contract, the site, or experience. Say them to Owl:

Owl writes the rule, checks it at once, and from then on it's checked on every change. See How guardrails work to write one yourself.

What to do next#

• Clear the failures: Fix issues with your schedule shows how to use Propose fix and work with Owl until the schedule is sound.
• Review a schedule you were handed: Audit a schedule vets a contractor's plan and ranks what's wrong with it.