Create a What-if Schedule
Use Case
Based on information received from the superintendent, the scheduler creates a what-if schedule to assess the potential impact on the project’s critical path, avoid additional costs from liquidated damages and account for time-dependent costs.
The scheduler sends a copy of the what-if schedule to the superintendent to include with the issue documentation.
Within InEight Schedule, you can create what-if schedules, adding activities and relationships as needed to determine impact on the project. A copy of the schedule can then be added to the issue’s Supporting Documents tab in InEight Change.
Create a What-if Schedule
The following steps walk through how to create a what-if schedule for assessing issue impact.
Step 1
From the Home register of InEight Schedule, select your Active Update schedule (the most recent approved schedule).
Step 2
Select Copy.
Step 3
On the resulting window, change the Schedule ID and Schedule Name to what you want for the what-if schedule, then click Copy.
Step 4
On the resulting new schedule, change the Schedule type to What if.
Add Activities and Logic
The following steps assume you need to add an activity for additional steel work under the Structures group of activities.
Step 1
Open the What-if schedule.
Step 2
Click on the ellipses in the Action menu and select Create activity.
Step 3
Select the Iris icon to show the side panel.
Add an ID referencing the issue ID and a description.
Step 4
Under Smart Planning, update the duration with the estimated issue impact communicated from project team.
Step 5
Drag to create a Finish to Start relationship between the Concrete “C” and Additional Steel Work activities.
Step 6
This establishes the Concrete activity as a predecessor to Additional Steel Work. The Additional Steel Work activity moves accordingly to a later date.
Step 7
Repeat these steps to establish predecessor and successor logic as needed.
Notice your new activity and the ones related to it are in red, indicating it affects the critical path of the schedule.
Compare Schedules to Determine Impact
InEight Schedule includes a snapshot feature that allows you to compare your What-If schedule to a snapshot of one of your other schedules (e.g., the Active Update schedule).
Step 1
Select the Set snapshot icon.
Step 2
On the resulting slide-out, select Assign schedule under Available snapshot.
Step 3
Select the schedule to assign as the snapshot.
Step 4
Close the slide-out.
You can now see your what-if schedule compared to your active schedule.
Step 5
You can add variance and date columns to your view to compare the finish dates of your What-If schedule to the finish dates of your active schedule (SN1).
In this case, it delays your Structures work by 14 days.
Step 6
More importantly, you can see how this affects the completion date of the entire project.
Add link to What-if Schedule in Change
The scheduler can print the what-if schedule as a PDF and send it back to the project team to include in the Supporting Documents of the issue.
Follow these steps to link the What-If schedule in Change.
Step 1
Select the Print icon to preview the schedule for printing.
Select print details to change to Legal print size and Low scale.
Select Save to PDF.
Step 2
In InEight Change, go to Supporting documents and click Add for a new document.
Step 3
Complete required fields and attach the supporting document. Click Add.
Step 4
The document appears in the supporting document register.
Access the following link to learn more: