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The flagship

Before you accept, or submit, the baseline: the Baseline Review. One file, one fixed fee, sealed as month zero.

A review of the baseline before it is accepted or submitted, read for what a later delay analysis would rest on. The reviewed file becomes Seal 00, the anchor of the Sealed Schedule Record.

For owners about to accept a contractor’s baseline, and EPC contractors about to submit one, at award, re-baseline, FID or a funding gate. The review is factual and is not an expert-witness opinion unless separately agreed.

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Fixed scope · fixed fee

Everything in the Review, in one box.

Baseline Review

Calculated by my engine

  • The calculated finish date and driving path for each facility, by longest path through the logic Saves tracing each facility’s path by hand.
  • Shared upstream work shown once, not repeated under every facility it feeds Saves reading one problem as several.
  • Facilities ranked, in a facility overview and a facility Gantt Shows at a glance which facility drives the finish.
  • Each record the engine excludes from the calculation, listed with its reason Nothing is dropped silently.

My review

  • A quality review of logic, constraints, float, calendars and durations, using industry-standard checks in the style of the DCMA 14-point assessment Saves your planners marking their own homework.
  • A claim-structure read: for each facility’s driving path, the defects that would shape a later delay analysis, ranked by effect on that facility’s finish Shows what a later claim would be built on, before it is accepted.
  • A fix list, a short written report and a read-out call with your team Tells your planner what to fix first.
  • One-page board brief. Which facility drives the finish, what drives it, and which baseline defects matter most, written for readers who are not planners.
  • Planner working session. 60 minutes with your planner, going through the fix list item by item.
  • One re-run of the corrected file. Same file, within the size agreed at scoping and within a period agreed at booking, with a one-page note of what changed in each facility’s finish and driving path.

Named bonus, in the fee

Seal 00: sealed as month zero

The baseline as received, unchanged since sealing, and the anchor for everything after it. I hash and timestamp the baseline as received and prepare its verification pack. If a corrected baseline is accepted, I seal that version too, so the record shows which file became the yardstick.

I do the sealing myself, with standard tools. A hash proves a file is unchanged since it was sealed. It does not prove the file is right. What a seal proves, and what it does not

Fee and terms

Fee
Fixed fee, agreed after a short scoping call
Turnaround
A turnaround agreed in writing at booking, counted from receipt of a readable .xer (a P6 export the engine can open and calculate; any records it excludes are listed with reasons)
Scope
One baseline .xer, with files within the size agreed at scoping. Larger files are quoted
Fee credit
The Review fee is credited to the Sealed Schedule Record if it starts within a period agreed at booking

Service commitment: on time and complete

If any core deliverable listed under the Review is missing, or the read-out is not delivered within the turnaround agreed at booking, I complete it at no charge and credit part of the fee.

This covers what I control: the work, its completeness and its timing. It is not a guarantee about the finish date or about any claim.

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What to send, and the NDA: see How I handle your files

Not ready for a full review?

The Baseline Red-Flag Scan.

A smaller first step under a mutual NDA: each facility’s finish and driving path from my engine, and my read of your baseline: up to ten red flags, ranked, and a 45-minute call to go through them.

Not included: the full quality review, the fix list, the board brief or Seal 00.

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Why the baseline matters

What is accepted at baseline is what a delay claim is later built on, or fought over.

The accepted baseline’s logic, durations, constraints, calendars and facility driving paths become the reference for windows analysis, as-planned versus as-built comparisons and impacted analyses. A defect accepted on day one carries through every one of them.

  • Missing or open-ended logic

    Activities with no predecessor or no successor let dates float free, so a delay event can appear to matter, or not, depending on a link nobody added.

  • Dates set by constraints, not logic

    A hard date holds a facility in place. Remove it later and the path shifts, and so does the argument about what caused the delay.

  • Padded or compressed durations

    Hidden buffer, or durations squeezed to hit a target, change how much delay a later event appears to cause.

  • Wrong calendars

    A six-day calendar where five apply, or holidays missing, moves every date along the path and every day counted in a claim.

  • A driving path through the wrong work

    If the path to a facility runs through work that does not really control it, the analysis measured against that path starts from the wrong place.

  • No record of which file was accepted

    Older programmes get updated instead of the accepted one, and earlier versions get overwritten. Later, nobody can show which baseline was the yardstick.

What the standards say, as far as I have checked them

How it works

From first call to sealed baseline, in four steps.

  1. 01

    Call

    A 30-minute scoping call to confirm the baseline, its size and the decision coming up.

  2. 02

    Confidentiality and file share

    We sign a confidentiality agreement, and you share the .xer by a method we agree. Where agreed, I can work on your own systems or premises.

  3. 03

    Seal and analyse

    I seal the file on receipt. My engine calculates each facility’s finish and driving path. I do the review and the claim-structure read myself.

  4. 04

    Read-out

    Written findings, the board brief and Seal 00’s verification pack, then a call with your team and a working session with your planner.

Have the baseline reviewed before it becomes the yardstick.

Tell me about the project, the baseline and when it is due to be submitted or accepted. On the call we confirm the scope, the size band and the start date.

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I reply within two working days. How I handle your files.