ScheduleGate

September 3, 2026 · View on GitHub

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\____/ \____/\_| |_/\____/|___/  \___/\_____/\____/ \____/\_| |_/\_/ \____/
                        Schedule Quality. Quantified.

A robust Go-based Command Line Interface (CLI) tool for performing DCMA 14-Point Assessments and Schedule Comparison. This tool helps project managers and schedulers evaluate the health, quality, and stability of their Integrated Master Schedules (IMS).

Features

  • DCMA 14-Point Assessment: Automatically calculates all 14 standard metrics.
  • Schedule Comparison: Benchmark two schedule versions to track changes, stability, and churn.
  • Visual Reports: Modern, high-contrast terminal output with score cards.
  • Export Capabilities: Generate HTML reports or append results to a CSV database for PowerBI.
  • Innovation Metrics: Includes unique "Stability Score" and "Friction Index" to identify bottlenecks.

Installation

Prerequisites

  • Go 1.20 or higher

Building from Source

To build the CLI for your current platform (macOS/Linux):

go build -o bin/schedulegate

Building for Windows

You can use the provided Makefile to properly cross-compile the application for Windows from macOS or Linux.

  1. Run the make command: 
    make build-windows
  2. The executable will be generated at bin/schedulegate.exe.

Using Make

The project includes a Makefile for convenience:

  • make build: Builds for the current environment (default: macOS).
  • make build-windows: Cross-compiles for Windows (amd64).
  • make build-mac: Builds for macOS (arm64).
  • make clean: Removes the bin directory.

Usage

The CLI has four primary commands: assess, compare, validate, and check-patterns.

1. Check Patterns (Compliance)

Validate schedule tasks against configurable pattern rules.

./schedulegate check-patterns <schedule-file> --rules <rules.yaml> [flags]

Flags:

  • --rules <path>: Path to YAML rules file (required).
  • --html <path>: Generate an HTML compliance report.
  • --csv <path>: Append results to a CSV file.
  • --detailed: Show matching task names for each rule.
  • --pct-format <format>: Percent complete scale — "0-100" (default) or "fraction".
  • --date-locale <locale>: Date parsing — "US" (default) or "EU".

Rules File Format:

rules:
  - name: "Mechanical Order Entry Tasks"
    match:
      name: "*Order Entry*"              # glob pattern on task name
      discipline: "05 - Mechanical Engineering"  # filter by discipline
    min_count: 1

  - name: "Controls Drawings to Install"
    match:
      name: "*Drawings to Install*"
      discipline: "06 - Controls Engineering"
    min_count: 1

  - name: "Segment 5700 Tasks"
    match:
      mechanical_segment_nbr: "5700"     # filter by segment number
    min_count: 1

  - name: "Long duration items"
    match:
      name: "*"
    constraints:
      min_duration: 30                   # tasks >= 30 days
    min_count: 1

Available Match Fields:

  • name / task_name: Task name (glob patterns supported)
  • discipline / task_discipline: Task discipline category
  • mechanical_segment_nbr / mech_segment: Mechanical segment number
  • control_segment_nbr / control_segment: Control segment number
  • wbs: WBS code
  • resources: Assigned resources
  • constraint_type: Constraint type

Note: Pattern matching is case-insensitive. The pattern *mechanical* will match "Mechanical", "MECHANICAL", "mechanical", etc.

Example:

./schedulegate check-patterns schedule.xlsx --rules rules.yaml --html compliance.html

2. Validate Columns

Check if a schedule file contains the expected columns before running analysis.

./schedulegate validate <path-to-file> [flags]

Flags:

  • --html <path>: Generate an HTML validation report.
  • --csv <path>: Append validation results to a CSV file.

Output:

  • Status: READY (all required columns found) or INCOMPLETE (missing required columns).
  • Required Columns: 10 columns needed for core functionality.
  • Optional Columns: 7 additional columns that enhance analysis.
  • Extra Columns: Unmapped columns present in your file.

Example:

./schedulegate validate my_schedule.xlsx --html validation.html

3. Assess Schedule

Analyze a single schedule file for DCMA compliance.

./schedulegate assess <path-to-file> [flags]

Flags:

  • -m, --metrics: Comma-separated list of metric IDs to run (1-14). Defaults to all.
  • --html <path>: Generate a rich HTML report.
  • --csv <path>: Append results to a CSV database (optimized for PowerBI).
  • --exceptions-report <path>: Generate an Excel workbook with per-metric exception sheets.
  • --customer <name>: Add customer name to report metadata.
  • --project <id>: Add project ID to report metadata.
  • --status-date <date>: Override the schedule status date (default: today).
  • --debug-logic: Print per-task successor resolution trace for Metric 1.
  • --pct-format <format>: Percent complete scale — "0-100" (MS Project default) or "fraction" (0.0–1.0 from Primavera).
  • --date-locale <locale>: Date parsing priority — "US" (MM/DD first, default) or "EU" (DD/MM first).
  • -v, --verbose: Show raw numerator/denominator counts per metric.

Example:

./schedulegate assess schedule_v1.xlsx --html report.html --csv history.csv --status-date 2026-04-10

4. Compare Schedules (Benchmark)

Compare two versions of a schedule to understand what changed ("Delta Engine").

./schedulegate compare <previous_file> <current_file>

Output Includes:

  • Stability Score (0-100): a weighted index based on three pillars:
    • Schedule Stability (40%): Penalizes finish date variances > 2 days.
    • Duration Reliability (30%): Penalizes duration growth ("bloat").
    • Scope Churn (30%): Penalizes added and deleted tasks.
  • Change Metrics: Counts of New, Deleted, and Modified tasks.
  • Friction Index: Identifies "Ghost Tasks" (tasks scheduled in the past with 0% progress) and ranks them by WBS to pinpoint bottlenecks.
  • Detailed Task Analysis (with --detailed): A comprehensive table showing exactly which tasks changed, with visual symbology for impact type (Stability, Reliability, Scope).

Flags:

  • --html <path>: Generate an HTML comparison report.
  • --detailed: Include row-by-row task-level changes in the HTML report.
  • --csv <path>: Append results to a comparison history CSV.
  • --customer <name>: Add customer name to report metadata.
  • --project <id>: Add project ID to report metadata.
  • --pct-format <format>: Percent complete scale — "0-100" (default) or "fraction".
  • --date-locale <locale>: Date parsing — "US" (default) or "EU".

Example:

./schedulegate compare baseline.xlsx current_progress.xlsx --html report.html --detailed

(The report will automatically open in your default browser)

Supported Formats

The tool reads schedule data exported from Microsoft Project or other scheduling tools.

  • Excel (.xlsx, .xls): Recommended.
  • CSV (.csv): Comma-separated values.

Required Fields

Ensure your export includes these columns (case-insensitive detection):

Core Fields (Required — 7 columns):

  • ID: Task ID, ID — the sequential row number visible in MS Project's left-hand column. If only a Unique ID column is present it is used as a fallback, but Task ID is always preferred so report values match the source schedule.
  • Name: Task Name, Name
  • Duration: Duration, Original Duration
  • Start: Start, Start Date
  • Finish: Finish, Finish Date
  • Predecessors: Predecessors, Pred
  • % Complete: % Complete, Percent Complete

Optional Fields (Enhance Analysis):

  • Resources: Resource Names, Resources — enables Metric 10
  • WBS: WBS, WBS Code — enables WBS grouping and Friction Index
  • Constraint Type: Constraint Type — enables Metric 5 (Hard Constraints)
  • Constraint Date: Constraint Date
  • Total Slack: Total Slack, Total Float — enables Metrics 6, 7, 12, 13
  • Free Slack: Free Slack
  • Baseline Duration: Baseline_Duration, BL Duration — enables Metric 8
  • Baseline Start / Finish: Baseline_Start, BL Start / Baseline_Finish, BL Finish — enables Metrics 11, 14
  • Actual Start / Finish: Actual_Start, Actual Start / Actual_Finish, Actual Finish — enables Metric 9
  • Discipline: Task Discipline, Discipline — grouping and reporting
  • Mechanical Segment: Mechanical_Segment_Nbr, Mechanical Segment Nbr — grouping and reporting
  • Control Segment: Control_Segment_Nbr, Control Segment Nbr — grouping and reporting
  • Unique ID: Unique ID, UniqueID — fallback task identifier
  • Outline Level: Outline Level, Level
  • Summary / Rollup: Summary, Rollup — summary task classification

Metrics Explained

DCMA 14-Point Assessment

  1. Logic: Tasks with missing predecessors or successors.
  2. Leads: Relationships with negative lag.
  3. Lags: Relationships with positive lag.
  4. Relationship Types: Finish-to-Start (FS) relationships.
  5. Hard Constraints: Constraints preventing logic flow (e.g., Must Finish On).
  6. High Float: Tasks with total slack > 44 working days.
  7. Negative Float: Tasks with negative total slack.
  8. High Duration: Tasks with duration > 60 working days.
  9. Invalid Dates: Tasks with invalid/missing dates.
  10. Resources: Tasks with resources assigned.
  11. Missed Tasks: Tasks passed status date but not finished.
  12. Critical Path Test: Pass/Fail test for broken critical path.
  13. CPLI: Critical Path Length Index.
  14. BEI: Baseline Execution Index.

Assessment Thresholds

#MetricThresholdPass When
1Logic5%< 5% tasks with missing logic
2Leads0%Zero leads (negative lag) allowed
3Lags10%< 10% relationships have lag
4Relationship Types≥ 90% FS≥ 90% Finish-to-Start
5Hard Constraints< 5%< 5% hard-constrained tasks
6High Float< 5%< 5% tasks with slack > 44 working days
7Negative Float< 5%< 5% tasks with negative float
8High Duration< 10%< 10% tasks with duration > 60 working days
9Invalid Dates0%Zero invalid dates allowed
10Resources≥ 95%≥ 95% tasks have resources
11Missed Tasks< 5%< 5% of due tasks are incomplete
12Critical Path TestPass/FailCritical path exists (static proxy)
13CPLI≥ 1.0CPLI ≥ 1.0
14BEI≥ 0.95BEI ≥ 0.95

For full metric definitions see USER_MANUAL.md or docs/assess-manual.html.

Benchmarking Metrics

For a deep dive into how scores are calculated, see the Comparison Manual.

  • Finish Variance (FV): Change in finish date between versions.
  • Task Bloat: Increase in duration between versions (>10% growth triggers penalty).
  • Task Churn: Ratio of added/deleted tasks to total tasks.
  • Ghost Tasks: Tasks that are "sliding" (Start date in past, 0% complete).

Further reading

For a plain-language walkthrough of the DCMA 14-Point assessment and why most schedules fail it, read Most Project Schedules Would Fail a Defense Audit.

Public release: v1.0.6 — August 2026