To help our customers maximize the value of SmartPM's Schedule Quality functionality, we've developed a set of Schedule Quality Templates tailored to common construction project types.
What Are Schedule Quality Templates?
SmartPM’s Schedule Quality Templates provide pre-configured rubrics that reflect best practices in schedule building for specific project types. Each template includes a recommended set of logic checks, threshold settings, and focus areas that have been proven useful by other SmartPM customers managing similar types of work.
These templates are not one-size-fits-all, but they offer a solid foundation to build on. You can use them as-is, modify them to fit your organization’s needs, or simply use them as inspiration to guide your own rubric development.
Templates Currently Available
We currently offer Schedule Quality Templates for the following project types:
Multifamily & Highrise Construction
Multifamily and highrise projects often consist of repeating units and floors, which creates a tendency for overlapping trades. This repetition can also sometimes obscure gaps in logic and float consumption. The Multifamily template emphasizes:
- An increased tolerance for useage of start-to-start and finish-to-finish logic ties, along with lag
- A check for duplicate activity names to ensure we are naming activities not only with the scope to be acheived, but also descriptors such as area, building or floor. This ensures accuracy in discussions about the schedule
- Multi-family project are often schedules in the Microsoft Project tool. Therefore update integrity checks that commonly aflict Microsoft Project updates have been incorporated
Mission Critical Facilities
Mission Critical projects (e.g., data centers) have low tolerance for slippage, requiring airtight logic and aggressive buffer management. These projects often come with the strictest of contractually specified scheduling considerations. The Mission Critical template focuses on:
- A heavy emphasis on update integrity metrics by way of heavier than usual penalties
- Critical path continuity through thorough looks at float calulations, constraint useage, missing logic, and the critical path percentage itself
- Execution metrics such as Acitivies Riding the Data Date and Out of Sequence Work
Department of Transportation (DOT) Projects
D.O.T. projects are linear in nature and often involve major external coordination and seasonal risk, such as weather constraints. These projects often come with contractually specified scheduling considerations. The D.O.T. template includes:
- A heavy emphasis on update integrity metrics by way of moderate penalties
- For information only High Duration, High Float, Critical Path Percentage, and Activities Riding the Data Date checks due to the nature of the long lead, linear projects
- An increased tolerance for useage of start-to-start and finish-to-finish logic ties, along with positive lag
Federal Government
Projects for federal entities, like the Army Corps of Engineers, come with strict scheduling requirements tied to federal standards. These standards must be followed for payment applications to be accepted. The USACE template helps ensure:
- Compliance with network logic rules and update requirements laid out in government contracts
- Monitoring for invalid logic relationships, missing predecessors/successors, and excessive lags or constraints
- Inclusion and validation of contract-specified milestones and calendars
- Emphasis on progress reporting integrity, ensuring schedule updates reflect real-world progress as required in monthly reports
Industrial / Manufacturing Facilities
Industrial schedules tend to include complex sequencing, OEM/vendor dependencies, and phased handoffs between trades and owner teams. This template:
- Most closely follows the SmartPM Default Profile and the DCMA-14 Point Methodology
- A heavy emphasis on update integrity metrics by way of moderate penalties
Each of these templates was built by blending real-world rubrics developed by SmartPM customers actively working in these areas. We analyzed these customer-built configurations and extracted common patterns, requirements, and best practices that align with high-quality schedule development and SmartPM's organizational expertise.
Note: These templates are meant to be customizable. We encourage you to review and adjust them based on the specifics of your organization's projects, internal expectations, and external requirements.
How to Use These Templates
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Access the Template – Navigate to the Schedule Quality Admin Page in your SmartPM environment and click the "Clone" button for the template that best fits your project type.
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Review and Adjust – Review the preset checks and thresholds, and modify them as necessary to suit your organization's needs.
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Save and Apply – Once tailored, save the rubric and apply it to your respective SmartPM projects.
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Monitor & Refine – As your teams use the rubric, continue to refine the configuration to better reflect your evolving processes and lessons learned.
If you have any questions or would like assistance with customizing a template, please don't hesitate to contact your SmartPM Customer Success Manager.