Recovery Schedule
A revised project schedule developed specifically to make up lost time after a project has fallen behind, identifying which activities can be compressed, resequenced, or run with added resources to bring the project back toward its original completion date.
Why it matters
Simply updating an existing schedule to reflect that it's behind doesn't actually recover any time, a real recovery schedule requires deliberately identifying specific, resourced actions that will close the gap, not just documenting that one exists. Distinct from [[concept-acceleration|acceleration]], the broader decision and cost of deliberately compressing a schedule, a recovery schedule is the specific replanned schedule document itself, the resequenced and re-resourced plan that may or may not involve acceleration's added cost.
On a real project
A project falls three weeks behind after a permitting delay, and the scheduler builds a recovery schedule resequencing several finish activities to run in parallel instead of sequentially, closing most of the gap without extending the overall duration.
Who this matters most to
A Scheduler builds the recovery schedule, identifying which specific activities can actually absorb compression or resequencing without just shifting the problem elsewhere.
Where this goes wrong
A project falls behind schedule, and the team keeps updating the existing schedule optimistically without ever building a real recovery schedule that identifies specific, resourced actions to actually make up the lost time. The gap between the optimistic update and reality keeps widening.
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