Statusing the CPM Schedule

What statusing (updating) is

A baseline is a plan frozen at a moment in time. The instant work starts, reality diverges from it. Statusing is how the schedule stops being a stale plan and becomes a live forecast: each cycle you tell it what actually happened, and it tells you where the project is now headed.

The data date — past vs. future

Every update is built around the data date (also called the status or "as-of" date): the cutoff that splits the schedule into history and forecast.

What you record each cycle

For every activity touched in the period, statusing captures the actuals that let the CPM recompute:

1. Actual start / actual finish — the real dates work began and ended. Once recorded, these are fixed history.
2. Progress / % complete — how far in-progress activities have got — measured by quantity installed where possible, not gut feel.
3. Remaining duration — the honest estimate of time left on in-progress work — the single most important forecast input. Don't just let it count down automatically; reassess it.
4. Changes since last update — new activities, logic or duration changes (with reasons), and any delays modelled as fragnets (Lesson 2).

A disciplined update cycle

Good statusing is a consistent, repeatable routine on a fixed cadence:

Ten things to remember

1. Statusing turns a frozen baseline into a live forecast — the heartbeat of project control.
2. You compare baseline vs current every period — the variance is the control signal.
3. The data date splits past from future — actuals left, forecast right.
4. No remaining work to the left of the data date — a hallmark of a clean update.
5. Record actual start/finish, progress, and remaining duration for touched activities.
6. Remaining duration is the forecast — reassess it honestly, don't just auto-count-down.
7. Measure % complete by quantity where possible, not gut feel.
8. Status on a fixed cadence — consistency makes trends and variance meaningful.
9. Recalculate, then review — the update isn't done when the dates change; you must interpret them (Lesson 16).
10. Preserve every update — the series is the contemporaneous record for any future claim.