Advanced Project Schedule Risk Analysis & Visualization with Aurora

Complex, resource-constrained schedules can contain relationships that are difficult to identify through task dates and precedence logic alone. Aurora provides advanced analytical capabilities for investigating these interactions. Planners can analyze schedule risk with or without resource limitations, trace dependency paths that include resource dependencies, examine constraint interactions, and test potential schedule changes.

Analyze Schedule Risk with and Without Resource Limitations

1. Monte Carlo Risk Analysis

Aurora supports two approaches to Monte Carlo risk analysis: ignoring resources and considering resource limitations.

The ability to perform Monte Carlo analysis both with and without resource limitations allows planners to examine risk under different assumptions about how resources affect project execution. This distinction can be particularly important on resource-constrained projects, where task dependencies alone may not reveal the full range of schedule risk.

2. Sensitivity Analysis

Aurora’s sensitivity analysis evaluates how changes in key task durations affect the overall schedule. This helps identify activities whose duration changes have a greater influence on project results, allowing planners to focus attention on potentially consequential areas of the schedule.

Trace Complex Schedule Relationships

In highly constrained schedules, activity relationships are not limited to explicitly defined task dependencies. Resource availability can also create dependencies between activities competing for the same limited resources.

3. Upstream and Downstream Task Analysis

Starting from a selected task, Aurora can analyze dependency chains both upstream and downstream, including resource dependencies. Planners can examine what is influencing an activity as well as which subsequent activities may be affected.

4. Point-to-Point Network Analysis

Aurora can find and analyze dependency paths between two selected tasks or milestones. These paths can include resource dependencies, allowing planners to investigate connections that may not be apparent from traditional precedence relationships alone.

5. Single-Element View

Aurora’s Single-Element View provides a focused view of an individual task and its relationships to its nearest neighbors. Users can then walk through related tasks as far as needed rather than examining an entire large project network at once.

Investigate Constraints and Test Schedule Changes

Aurora provides interactive scenario analysis for experimenting with potential changes and evaluating their effects on the schedule.

Visual displays of constraint interactions, schedule logic, and resource dependencies help planners investigate why activities are positioned where they are and how different parts of the project interact.

Additional capabilities include:

• Criteria-based appearance controls and filtering
• Accumulation and burndown plots
• Tabular representations of project data
• Smart cut-and-paste compatibility with Excel and other spreadsheets

Check Schedule Logic and Analyze Large Models

Aurora can run schedule logic checks, including DCMA reports as well as unique Aurora analyses, helping planners examine schedule quality and identify areas that may require further investigation.

Aurora also supports large models, allowing these analytical capabilities to be applied to schedules that may be difficult to investigate manually.

Integration with Other Project Tools

Aurora is built for third-party integration and can connect with external tools and services through APIs or connectors. This enables Aurora’s advanced scheduling and analysis capabilities to support project-specific workflows while exchanging data with other systems in an organization’s existing technology environment.

Go Beyond Building the Schedule

Aurora combines Monte Carlo risk analysis, sensitivity analysis, network analysis, schedule visualization, logic checking, and interactive scenario analysis to provide deeper insight into complex project schedules.

These capabilities build on Aurora’s broader approach to advanced project planning. With advanced project planning and modeling, teams can create schedules that more accurately represent real-world project conditions and constraints. Aurora’s advanced scheduling and resource management capabilities then help planners account for resource availability and optimize how work is scheduled.

Together, these capabilities create a more complete planning process: model the realities of the project, build a resource-feasible schedule, and analyze the risks and relationships that could affect the project outcome.

See Aurora’s Advanced Scheduling Capabilities in Action

Want to see how Aurora’s project schedule risk analysis, visualization, and scenario analysis capabilities can help you better understand your project schedules resulting in real-world benefits? Complete the demo form below to see Aurora in action.