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Life is a Process Not an Outcome, Senior Scheduler Jobs, Defining Criticality with Multiple Float Paths

Life is a Process Not an Outcome, Senior Scheduler Jobs, Defining Criticality with Multiple Float Paths

Micah Piippo
April 29, 2025

Welcome back to Beyond Deadlines newsletter—a free perk for people looking to improve in Planning and Scheduling. Each week, we provide tactics, prompts, jobs and food for thought. We want you to succeed today, tomorrow and throughout the rest of your career.

Last week I shared with you step by step instructions on how to forecast the end of a project.

➡️ You can now watch the full breakdown here.

Forecasting the end of a project date doesn’t have to be a mystery.

Dysfunctional Belief: We judge our life by the outcome. Reframe: Life is a process, not an outcome.

Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Not All Red Bars Are Critical

Two planners. One project. Two critical paths.

It's not a scheduling mistake — it's a settings mistake.

Let's unpack why understanding P6’s setup changes everything.

It’s a window into how deeply Primavera P6’s settings shape the way your schedule tells its story.

If you don’t understand these settings, your critical path analysis might be telling you a completely different story than you think.

This isn’t about right or wrong. It’s about clarity, intention, and process.

How P6 Actually Sees "Critical"

Most people think critical activities are the ones with exactly 0 days of Total Float.

That’s the default behavior. But it’s not the whole story.

In Primavera P6, you can set a Critical Float Threshold — allowing activities with positive float (say, up to 5 days) to be marked critical.

That single setting can change everything:

You might think something is critical just because it crossed the threshold.
You might miss the true driver of your project’s completion.

Always check how criticality is being defined before trusting the red bars.

The Power (and Danger) of Multiple Float Paths (MFP)

When you really want to understand schedule drivers, Multiple Float Paths is your best friend.

MFP doesn’t just highlight one path. It lets you trace several float paths at once — and see the web of near-critical risks that could sneak up on you.

Here’s what you control:

Float Type: Total Float, Free Float, or Longest Path
Start/Finish Activity: Where you want to trace back from
Calculate Multiple Float Paths: Yes or No

Choose wisely. Each option tells a different story about what’s truly driving your project.

A Quick Example

Picture this:

Path A: 90 days (driving)
Path B: 92 days (2 days of float)

Now imagine:

Your Critical Float Threshold is set at 2 days → Both paths show up as "critical."
You run MFP using Longest Path → Only Path A shows up as truly driving.

Same project. Different settings. Very different conclusions.

This is why understanding the setup matters — not just accepting what the Gantt chart shows.

Best Practices for Clear, Confident Analysis

✅ Check the Critical Float Threshold before you start making decisions.

✅ Always document how criticality was determined in your schedule basis.

✅ Use Multiple Float Paths with Free Float to find hidden near-critical paths.

✅ Use the Longest Path option to identify the true driving path to project completion.

✅ Never assume red = critical driver — verify it every time.

Final Thought

Critical paths aren’t discovered. They’re defined.

Every time you open a P6 file, you’re making choices about what your schedule will reveal — and what it might hide.

Learn to set those choices intentionally, and you’ll tell the real story of your project.

Schedule Narrative and .PDF Comparison

Copy and paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude.

Act like an expert construction planner and project scheduler with 15 years of experience delivering large-scale capital construction projects across industries such as infrastructure, energy, and commercial real estate. You are highly skilled in Primavera P6 scheduling, project controls, narrative preparation, forensic schedule analysis, and identifying inconsistencies between documentation and baseline schedules.

Your objective is to carefully compare two artifacts provided by the user:

A schedule narrative (text description)
A Primavera P6-generated Gantt chart in .pdf format

The goal is to identify and report potential discrepancies, mismatches, or inconsistencies between the schedule narrative and the Gantt chart. These discrepancies may relate to, but are not limited to:

Differences in project milestones
Variances in start and finish dates
Sequencing or logic mismatches between activities
Differences in critical path descriptions
Missing activities described in the narrative but absent from the P6 PDF
Activity durations or constraints not aligned between the two documents
Calendar assumptions or work period assumptions inconsistencies
Narrative descriptions that conflict with the float or path shown in the Gantt chart

Follow these steps:

Step 1: Thoroughly review the schedule narrative. Extract key details including listed milestones, major activities, sequencing logic, calendars, critical paths, risk factors, and assumptions.

Step 2: Carefully review the Primavera P6 .pdf Gantt schedule. Extract comparable key information: activity names, durations, start/finish dates, critical path(s), constraints, float values, calendars, and any milestone markers.

Step 3: Conduct a side-by-side comparison between the extracted narrative details and the Gantt chart data.

Step 4: Identify and categorize all discrepancies. Classify discrepancies by type (e.g., Milestone Mismatch, Logic Gap, Date Deviation, Missing Activity, Calendar Conflict).

Step 5: For each identified discrepancy, explain in detail:

What the discrepancy is
Why it matters (potential impact to project execution or reporting)
Suggestions for clarification or correction, where applicable

Step 6: Summarize your findings in a professional, clear, and detailed report structured in this format:

Executive Summary (overview of discrepancies)
Detailed Discrepancy Log (table format: ID, Category, Description, Impact, Suggested Action)
General Recommendations (best practices to align future narratives and P6 schedules more tightly)

Important: Be extremely thorough, clear, and technical. Use professional language suitable for inclusion in an Owner's review report or a claims/disputes context.

Work on this problem step-by-step.