Windows analysis

Instead of modeling one event, a windows analysis walks the whole project period by period and measures how much time slipped in each period, and why. It uses your schedule updates, so it reflects how the job actually unfolded rather than a single hypothetical. Use it when delay built up over many months and you want to put the slip in the right periods.

Note: A window is a slice of the project timeline, usually the span between two schedule updates. Contemporaneous means as it was seen at the time: the analysis reads each update in turn, the way the team experienced the job.

Before you start

The analysis needs the updates. Either:

  • Upload them in the form: the baseline, each update, and the as-built if you have one, oldest first. Say which file is which. The agent imports each one as its own scenario; your working schedule doesn't change.
  • Leave the upload empty to use this project's schedule history, the versions Owl saved over the life of the project, including updates you imported over time.

The more updates you have, the sharper the window boundaries.

Step 1: Set up the windows

In the chat panel, click + (New thread) and pick Windows analysis under Delay analysis specialist. In a thread that's already with that agent, use the Flows button under the message box. See Analyze a delay for both routes.

The form has one step:

The Windows analysis flow, with how to define windows, optional notes and delays of interest, an upload for schedule updates, the completion milestone, and an upload for delay records.123451How should windows be defined? By schedule updates, Monthly or Custom.2Optional notes on the windows and delays of interest.3Schedule updates: upload them, or leave empty to use the project's history.4The completion milestone the contract measures.5Delay records: with these, the agent can say whose delay each window's is.
  • How should windows be defined? By schedule updates (each update is a window boundary, the most defensible), Monthly (calendar-month windows), or Custom (describe the boundaries in the notes).
  • Notes on windows and Delays of interest (optional): point the agent at specific periods or events.
  • Schedule updates: see Before you start.
  • Completion milestone the contract measures: for example Substantial Completion. If you leave it out, the agent picks one and asks you to confirm.
  • Delay records (optional): a delay log, change orders, RFIs. Without them the analysis shows what slipped and why in schedule terms, but can't say whose delay it was.

Press Start.

Step 2: Read the windows report

The agent compares each pair of updates activity by activity: how far the completion milestone moved in each window, which path drove it, and whether an update hid slip by changing logic or durations rather than recording progress. It writes the report and asks you to accept it or say what to change.

A finished windows analysis. The Windows Analysis report is open in a tab, the project tree lists the imported updates as draft scenarios, and the chat shows a table of four windows with the reported slip, the slip after correction and the driver.12341The Windows Analysis report: the schedules analyzed, then the slip per window and its drivers.2The slip in each window, as reported and after correction, and what drove it.3Each uploaded update is a draft scenario, plus any the agent made for corrections.4The report under Documents.

In the example above, Substantial Completion slipped 44 working days over four windows. The December update reported a 15-day gain, but the agent found that it came from cutting the punch list and changing an elevator inspection tie, not from progress. With those edits reversed, that window lost 19 days instead.

Heads up: A windows analysis is only as good as the updates behind it. If an update was saved without logic or calculated dates, the report says so rather than guessing; treat those windows as directional.

Ask Owl
Re-cut the windows by month instead of by update.
For window 3, what were the biggest contributors to the slip?
Here's our delay log. Say whose delay each window's slip is.

What to do next

  • Zoom in on one period: if a single window holds most of the delay, run a time impact analysis on the event that drove it for an event-level result.
  • Send it: export the windows report for your submittal.