Project Timeline Drift
Project Timeline Drift watches the live project schedule in Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, or Asta Powerproject against the contracted baseline, then ties each slipped activity to source events in the project record such as RFIs, change orders, or weather days. It emits a structured drift report with citations and is currently shipping with 1–3 design partners under a Beta cohort.
- Schedule slips flagged with the specific source event that drove them, not just a late-finish date.
- Drift reports cite RFI, change order, meeting, and weather data for each slipped activity so PMs see the cause, not just the effect.
- Re-runs on schedule revisions diff against the prior drift report so planners see what changed between updates.
From "we noticed late" to "we knew when".
Workflow today
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01
Baseline schedule signed
Week 0. The planner locks the Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project baseline, exports XER or MPP, and files a PDF in the project folder. The PM commits to key milestones with the owner, but the link between the baseline and the wider project record stays manual and fragile.
Week 0 -
02
Activities slip quietly
Week 1+. RFIs delay design decisions, weather days consume float, and change orders re-sequence trades, but the schedule file updates only when the planner has time. Asta Powerproject or Smartsheet exports lag the real events, so early project timeline drift hides inside email threads and meeting minutes.
Week 1+ -
03
Monthly schedule review surfaces drift late
Month 2+. A senior PM opens the latest P6 or MSP file, sees critical activities behind, and spends ~1 week reverse-engineering which RFIs, change orders, or late submittals drove which slips. They manually cross-check the RFI log, meeting minutes, and weather reports, with no help from the Memory Agent or any structured project-intelligence backbone.
Month 2+ -
04
Owner conversation reactive
Month 3+. The owner meeting focuses on explaining why the date moved rather than how to recover it. Documentation is thin, dispute exposure grows, and any future dispute evidence timeline build starts from scattered emails instead of a clean, cited drift history.
Month 3+
Workflow with VitruAI
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01
Connect the schedule
Week 0, ~1 day. The team connects the Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, or Asta Powerproject schedule via XER, MPP, or XML export and locks the baseline inside the project-intelligence environment. In parallel, they connect the project record: RFI log, change-order log, meeting minutes, and weather data, often already structured for scope drift detection and meeting minutes to action items.
Week 0, ~1 day -
02
Agent monitors live
Ongoing. Each time the planner updates the schedule and exports a new file, the system ingests it and compares it to the baseline and prior runs. Slipped or re-sequenced activities are tied to candidate source events in the project record using the same memory backbone that powers the Scope Agent and Memory Agent.
Ongoing -
03
PM reviews drift report
Weekly. The PM opens a structured drift report where each slipped activity lists the original and current dates, float change, and a set of cited events: which RFI delayed which design decision, which weather day cost which float, and which change order re-sequenced which work. Ambiguous pairings are clearly marked for human review rather than hidden assumptions.
Weekly -
04
Recovery decisions earlier
When warranted. Instead of waiting for a monthly review, the PM sees project timeline drift within a week of the underlying events and walks into the owner conversation with documentation already assembled. Recovery plans reference specific RFIs, change orders, and weather days, and the same record later feeds into any dispute evidence timeline build without rework.
When warranted
Project Timeline Drift — FAQ
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Which schedule tools are supported?
The Beta cohort focuses on Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, and Asta Powerproject, with schedule data ingested from XER, MPP, or XML exports rather than from PDFs. Each engagement configures the firm’s actual export workflow so planners keep using their current tools. Additional formats such as Smartsheet or CSV-based schedules are evaluated per deployment, with accuracy reports calibrated per project.
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How does it tie schedule slips to project events?
The system reads the structured schedule alongside the project record, including the RFI log, change-order log, meeting minutes, and weather data. For each slipped or re-sequenced activity, it proposes likely source events based on dates, descriptions, and participants, then assigns a confidence score to each pairing. Lower-confidence links are flagged for planner review, so humans always control which events appear in the final drift report and any downstream dispute evidence timeline.
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Does this replace the project planner?
No. The planner still owns the schedule, the recovery strategies, and the owner conversation; this workflow removes the “we discovered the slip three weeks late” failure mode. Instead of spending days tracing RFIs and change orders manually, the planner starts from a pre-cited drift report and focuses on options and scenarios. In practice, planners in Beta keep using P6 or MSP as before, with project timeline drift analysis running in the background as an additional lens.
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How does this fit with scope-drift and meeting-minutes use cases?
Project Timeline Drift runs on the same project-intelligence backbone that supports scope and communications tracking for A-1 and A-2. Scope drift detection watches whether the design is growing, while this workflow watches whether the schedule is slipping and why, both backed by the Scope Agent and the Memory Agent. Meeting minutes to action items keeps the action log current, so when an activity slips the system already knows which meeting decisions, RFIs, or change orders likely drove the change.
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How do I join the Beta cohort?
The Beta cohort is 1–3 design partners with structured Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, or Asta Powerproject schedules and a clear contracted baseline. Engagements run under MSA + Appendix, with deployment details and data flows documented up front. To join, apply via the “Apply to the Beta” CTA on this page; the team will review schedule maturity, project-record structure, and fit with related workflows such as scope drift detection and dispute evidence timeline.