As-Planned vs. As-Built Schedule Comparison
A forensic scheduling technique comparing a project's original baseline schedule against what actually happened in the field, activity by activity, to identify where and how significantly the project diverged from its plan. It's one input among several in a full delay analysis rather than a complete answer on its own.
Why it matters
Showing that a project ran late isn't the same as proving why, this comparison is a starting point for a delay analysis, not a substitute for the deeper [[concept-time-impact-analysis|time impact analysis]] that actually attributes specific delays to specific causes.
On a real project
A scheduling consultant lays the project's as-built schedule side by side with its original baseline and identifies exactly which activities ran longer than planned and by how much, a first step toward figuring out why.
Who this matters most to
A Scheduling & Delay Consultant builds the as-planned versus as-built comparison as groundwork, then digs deeper to attribute specific causes to specific delays.
Where this goes wrong
An analyst builds an as-planned versus as-built comparison but only includes the activities that support the client's preferred narrative, leaving out several activities that actually ran ahead of schedule. The skewed comparison overstates how far behind the project really fell, and the opposing side's own analysis catches the omission.