Chronos

A schedule that survives contact with the site.

We build, maintain and defend your project schedule. Chronos computes sequences, tests hypotheses and keeps the trace of every revision.

Let’s talk about your project

The problem

  1. The baseline schedule stopped being true by month three.

  2. And nobody dares touch it anymore.

  3. When the delay finally comes up for discussion, no one can say when the slippage started or what caused it.

The model

A schedule holds like code: one baseline, one branch per hypothesis, a merge when you decide, and a history nobody can rewrite.

  • commita dated revision, attributed to its author
  • brancha hypothesis tested without touching the reference schedule
  • diffwhat changes between two scenarios, task by task
  • mergethe decision taken, and the trace of who took it
  • blamewho moved this task, when, and on what data
  • checkoutthe exact state of the schedule at a past date

Functions

  • Queryable

    The schedule answers a question asked in plain language

    « Which tasks slipped since the last revision, and which of them touch the critical path? » An agent reads the data, computes, and names the tasks. A schedule file gets opened; this one gets asked.

  • Levelling

    Spreads workload against real availability

    It first looks for a solution that leaves the contractual date untouched. If it finds none, it says so, and shows what would have to move.

  • Smoothing

    Cuts mobilisation peaks without extending the critical path

    A mobilisation peak that drops one week in three is a real cost. Smoothing shaves it wherever float allows.

  • Critical path

    Recalculated on every progress update

    Not once a month for the report: every time the data changes.

  • Scenarios

    Each hypothesis lives in its own branch

    Two scenarios are compared task by task before one is chosen. The comparison is an object, not an impression.

  • Ledger

    Every revision is dated and attributed

    The state of the schedule at any past date can be reconstructed. That is what makes the account defensible months later.

  • Interoperability

    Reads and writes the formats of the trade

    The schedule stays in the tool where it lives. No re-entry, no migration.

Against current practice

Current practiceWith the engine
Querying the scheduleopen the file and searchask the question in plain language
Updatesmonthly, by handon every progress update
Revisionsthe previous version is overwrittendated, kept, replayable
Hypothesesone file per scenario, compared by eyebranches compared task by task
Levellingmanual, untracedunder explicit constraint, the trade-off logged
State at a past daterecoverable if the backup existsreconstructable at any date
Who decidesthe plannerthe planner; the engine computes and proposes

Formats read and written

MS ProjectPrimavera P6TilosCSVJSON

What the engine does not do

It does not replace the planner. The engine computes, tests and proposes. The call stays human, and is logged as such: who decided, when, and on what basis.

It invents no data. Without progress updates it concludes nothing. It flags what is missing rather than filling the gap with an assumption.

It does not replace knowledge of the site. The engine computes on what is reported to it. An event nobody flagged does not exist for it: its worth depends on what comes back from site, and it says when that is missing.