Baseline schedule review checklist template

Before you start

Use after receiving a proposed baseline and its native schedule, narrative and supporting reports. Record a recommendation for the authorized reviewer; this form does not approve the baseline.

• Contract scheduling specification and milestone obligations
• Native schedule, revision identifier and calculation settings
• Calendar, logic, constraint and resource reports
• Basis of schedule and contractor narrative

How to use it

Establish the review basis

Identify the exact file, revision, data date and specification. Note missing inputs before assessing quality; a PDF bar chart alone may not expose the underlying logic.

Check contract dates and scope

Confirm that the contract milestones and work breakdown appear in the schedule, including procurement, submittals, testing, commissioning and closeout. Record missing scope as a finding before reviewing dates.

Test durations and logic

Check that durations have a stated basis and that the logic follows the planned sequence of work, with every activity tied to a predecessor and a successor apart from the start and finish milestones. Ask for the basis of unusual lags and leads.

Trace the completion path

Follow the driving chain to contractual completion. Check calendars, interfaces, constraints, open ends and long activities against the agreed requirements. Distinguish a diagnostic flag from a substantiated finding.

Close each finding

Record activity IDs, the requirement, a specific response request and an owner. Preserve the contractor response and reviewer disposition with the reviewed revision.

Fields included

• Schedule filename / revision / data date
• Governing specification / milestone obligation
• Completion date / driving path / float context
• Finding ID / activity IDs / evidence reference
• Requirement and observed condition
• Requested clarification or corrective action
• Responsible party / response due
• Reviewer recommendation / authorized disposition

An interface without a successor

Illustrative example: activity INT-240, utility release, has no successor to civil excavation EXC-310. The reviewer records the specification's logic requirement, requests confirmation of the interface and assigns a response date. The item stays open until the revised logic and effect on completion have been checked.

Before issue

• The native file and narrative refer to the same revision.
• Each finding names the evidence and the applicable requirement.
• Schedule diagnostics have been assessed in project context.
• Disposition records who decided, when and on which revision.

Practice references

• GAO Schedule Assessment Guide, GAO-16-89G
• UFGS 01 32 01.00 10, Project Schedule, August 2026

Original Kairos working templates informed by common project-controls practice. Adapt them to your contract, project procedure and approval authority. They are not official standards-body forms or a certification of compliance.

Keep learning

• Baseline schedule
• Schedule quality