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Kairos scheduling handbook

Professional learning pathways

Six role-based 90-day learning paths with classrooms, operating guides and practice exercises.

Choose a role and follow the sequence at a pace appropriate to your experience. These are development pathways, not certification programs.

Entering project controls: 90-day foundation

Professionals moving into planning, scheduling, or project controls

Build the vocabulary, network model, P6 orientation, and review habits needed to contribute under qualified supervision.

First 30 days / Read the network

Explain how activities, logic, calendars, float, and the data date produce a forecast.

    Evidence of practice

    • Annotated network walk-through
    • Calendar and float explanation
    • Questions escalated to a supervising scheduler

    Days 31–60 / Operate P6 deliberately

    Navigate the Activities workspace and perform controlled setup, scheduling, layout, and baseline tasks.

      Evidence of practice

      • Saved training layout
      • Recorded scheduling options
      • Sandbox-only practice export

      Days 61–90 / Apply a review method

      Use a dependency-ordered checklist on a fictional baseline and explain the disposition.

      Evidence of practice

      • Completed case memo
      • Reviewer feedback
      • Next development objective

      Scheduler and P6 operator: 90-day operating path

      Schedulers and planners who build, calculate, update, and exchange detailed CPM schedules

      Move from software operation to a repeatable, evidence-controlled monthly scheduling practice.

      First 30 days / Control the model

      Create governed calendars, WBS, activities, logic, codes, and calculation settings.

        Evidence of practice

        • Schedule-basis notes
        • Controlled layout set
        • Logic and calendar review record

        Days 31–60 / Run the update cycle

        Collect status to a defined cutoff, reforecast remaining work, and explain path movement.

        Evidence of practice

        • Status collection record
        • Change and variance log
        • Model monthly-review memo

        Days 61–90 / Harden quality and exchange

        Check schedule integrity, analyze multiple paths, preserve lineage, and validate XER exchange.

        Evidence of practice

        • Quality findings with evidence IDs
        • Round-trip reconciliation record
        • Peer calibration notes

        Project and field leader: 90-day delivery path

        Project managers, superintendents, engineers, and field leaders who own execution commitments

        Translate field sequence, constraints, procurement, and recovery actions into schedule decisions the project team can verify.

        First 30 days / Connect field work to CPM

        Read the current driving path, near-critical work, constraints, and handoffs without relying on a bar chart alone.

          Evidence of practice

          • Path walk with field owners
          • Constraint ownership log
          • Two-way schedule questions

          Days 31–60 / Make status evidence-based

          Provide actuals, remaining durations, forecast dates, and logic changes against a defined cutoff.

            Evidence of practice

            • Signed status cutoff
            • Forecast assumption log
            • Field-to-schedule variance record

            Days 61–90 / Make recovery executable

            Challenge a recovery plan for resources, access, approvals, secondary paths, and measurable commitments.

            Evidence of practice

            • Recovery action register
            • Owner and due date for every action
            • Measured next-period outcome

            Owner and program leader: 90-day governance path

            Owners, public agencies, executives, and program-controls leaders who rely on schedule evidence

            Ask better questions, govern the approval record, and distinguish portfolio signals from project-level schedule proof.

            First 30 days / Read the decision signals

            Interpret milestones, float, variance, SPI, and risk without overstating what any single metric proves.

              Evidence of practice

              • Executive question set
              • Metric limitation notes
              • Escalation thresholds tied to evidence

              Days 31–60 / Govern baseline and update acceptance

              Require complete submissions, controlled reviews, clear dispositions, and retained versions.

              Evidence of practice

              • Acceptance authority matrix
              • Comment and disposition trail
              • Controlled baseline identifier

              Days 61–90 / Calibrate portfolio oversight

              Connect recurring schedule-quality and forecast issues to owner actions, training, and contract administration.

              Evidence of practice

              • Portfolio issue taxonomy
              • Management action register
              • Quarterly capability objective

              Consultant and schedule reviewer: 90-day assurance path

              Consultants, owner reviewers, scheduler-reviewers, and auditors

              Create a repeatable source-to-finding review method with defensible comments, limitations, and dispositions.

              First 30 days / Review in dependency order

              Preserve the source, confirm scope and settings, then test logic, dates, paths, changes, and narrative.

                Evidence of practice

                • Source intake record
                • Dependency-ordered checklist
                • Evidence-linked findings

                Days 31–60 / Verify P6 mechanics

                Reproduce the governing calculation and inspect native fields, layouts, checks, baselines, and exchange controls.

                Evidence of practice

                • Calculation-setting record
                • Controlled review layout
                • Baseline lab memo

                Days 61–90 / Calibrate disposition quality

                Distinguish correction, comment, acceptance, entitlement, and method limitations across update and delay work.

                Evidence of practice

                • Peer-reviewed memo language
                • Disposition decision tree
                • Unresolved limitation log

                Claims and risk professional: 90-day analysis path

                Claims professionals, delay analysts, risk practitioners, counsel-support teams, and expert consultants

                Connect contract entitlement, contemporaneous records, schedule mechanics, method choice, uncertainty, and causation without collapsing them into one conclusion.

                First 30 days / Separate the questions

                Distinguish delay classification, entitlement, causation, concurrency, method, and evidence.

                  Evidence of practice

                  • Issue and entitlement matrix
                  • Evidence chronology
                  • Method-selection constraints

                  Days 31–60 / Test the schedule analysis

                  Evaluate source schedules, updates, fragnets, paths, settings, and information dates before interpreting impact.

                    Evidence of practice

                    • Source-schedule selection memo
                    • Fragnet logic review
                    • Method limitation statement

                    Days 61–90 / Calibrate a defensible opinion

                    Complete a fictional TIA review, document alternative explanations, and separate technical impact from legal entitlement.

                    Evidence of practice

                    • Model TIA review memo
                    • Alternative-path analysis
                    • Human approval record

                    Find your next learning step · P6 operating handbook