MT381 Unit 10 Baseline Schedule Submittal Example

Course	MT381 Construction Planning and Scheduling
Unit	Unit 10
Paper type	Baseline schedule submittal
Length	About 1,100 words, 7 pages double-spaced
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Purdue University Global
Program	BS in Business Administration
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for MT381 Unit 10

Everything Needed to Reproduce the Dates: An MT381 Unit 10 Baseline Schedule Submittal to an Owner's Representative

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

MT381: Construction Planning and Scheduling

Unit 10 Baseline Schedule Submittal

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The project, schedule and submittal are composite; the specification sections are cited by their standard numbers, and the sources cited are real.

What this part is doingPromising reproducibility in the lead tells the reviewer how the submittal expects to be judged.

Transmittal

The transmittal letter cites Section 01 32 16, the specification section governing the construction progress schedule, and names the data date, March 1, 2027, the day of notice to proceed. It identifies the scheduling software and lists five enclosures: the narrative, the assumptions and exclusions list, a predecessor-successor report, a logic diagram, and a bar chart sorted by area. A reviewer can confirm that nothing is missing before reading further.

Scope and Sequence

The narrative opens with the project: three floors of 14,200 square feet each on a steel frame and spread footings, brick veneer and curtain wall, a TPO roof with three rooftop units and two elevators. The sequence follows the building: sitework and foundations in spring, steel and deck in early summer, the envelope through the summer, dry-in in early September, interiors floor by floor through the fall and closeout in December. The schedule contains 64 activities, including three milestones, joined by 96 relationships.

The Controlling Chain

Twenty activities control completion. The chain starts in the steel fabricator's drafting room, passes through the architect's review and the shop, and reaches the site as erection. From there it runs up through the deck and the second-floor slab, out through the wall assemblies to dry-in, then down into level 1 drywall and finishes and across the three floors of ceilings, ending with commissioning, the inspectors' visits and closeout on December 15, 2027. The near-critical power chain, from switchgear submittal through energizing permanent power, carries five days of float and is flagged as the chain most likely to take over the path.

Calendars and Weather

The standard calendar works a five-day week with nine holidays. The exterior calendar removes 28 anticipated lost working days through the contract date, month by month: the spring months lose the most, eight days across March and April, May loses three, June through September lose two each, and the last quarter loses nine in all. Seventeen activities are assigned to it, all of them exterior: sitework, foundations, steel and deck, concrete on deck, the four envelope trades, roofing, paving and landscaping. Unforecast weather beyond those days will be documented in updates as a cause of delay.

Procurement

Submittal review is scheduled at the ten working days Section 01 33 00 allows. Switchgear has the longest quoted lead time, 140 working days from approval to delivery, more than five times the steel fabricator's. The curtain wall, elevator and rooftop unit quotes fall between those two, and the predecessor-successor report lists each one beside its installation activity.

The Seven Days Between December 15 and December 27

The schedule's early finish, December 15, falls seven working days before the contract completion date, December 27. The narrative addresses this directly. The seven days are labeled project float, shown as such on the bar chart, and treated under the contract's float clause as available to the project rather than to either party alone. The contractor requests no compensation for finishing early and no extension for using the float.

Labeling the seven early-finish days as project float, and asking nothing for them, removes the most predictable dispute before anyone can raise it.

What this part is doingAddressing early completion in the narrative shows the scheduler anticipated the owner's first question.

Assumptions and Exclusions

The list states that durations come from quantities and sourced production rates, that lags count standard working days, that the electrical subcontractor will provide twelve electricians from July 20 to August 24 as confirmed in writing, that two telehandlers fit the staging area, and that the owner's furniture and equipment installation is excluded.

Health Check

The final pages hold a health check modeled on the fourteen-point assessment published by the Defense Contract Management Agency (2012), with a count, a percentage and a comment for each test. There are no open ends: every activity but the first and last has a predecessor and a successor. There are no leads. There are no hard constraints; only notice to proceed carries a date. No activity has negative float.

Three tests depart from the common guides, and each is explained. Finish-to-start ties make up 75.0 percent of the logic, against a common 90 percent guide. Thirty of 96 ties, 31.3 percent, carry lags, against a 5 percent guide. Both departures come from the same choice: where trades overlap, the schedule ties them at both ends, start with start and finish with finish, which the lag register justifies tie by tie, because a single finish-to-start tie would either overstate the duration or hide an overlap. High float, more than 44 working days, appears on 10 of 61 work activities, 16.4 percent, against a 5 percent guide; three are procurement lines with early deliveries, and the rest, such as brick, paving and landscaping, are genuinely flexible exterior work, several of which are later consumed by the telehandler leveling. High duration, more than 44 days, appears on 4 activities, 6.6 percent, and all four are procurement lines, which the narrative separates from field work.

Resource Loading

Two resources are loaded in the baseline. Electricians are loaded on every rough-in, trim-out and switchgear activity, and the leveled plan allows twelve from July 20 to August 24 and ten otherwise; the histogram is enclosed. Telehandlers are limited to two, which moves brick veneer to a September 8 start inside its float. Both leveling decisions are listed in the assumptions so the reviewer can see which dates come from logic alone and which from resource limits.

How the Schedule Will Be Updated

Updates will be issued monthly, each with a data date at the start of the month. Each update will record actual start and finish dates, remaining durations for activities under way and a narrative accounting for any change in the forecast completion date, cause by cause. Logic changes will be listed separately so the reviewer can tell a revised plan from reported progress. The baseline will not be overwritten; every update will be compared against it.

Why the Departures Are Acceptable

Mubarak (2015) cautions that schedule metrics are indicators to be explained, not rules to be met mechanically, and Hinze (2012) stresses that a schedule's value lies in whether it models how the work will actually be done. Converting the paired ties to finish-to-start ties would bring the percentages closer to the guides and make the schedule less accurate. The submittal chooses accuracy and explains the choice.

What this part is doingClosing with the reason for each departure shows the health check was used to explain the schedule rather than to decorate it.

References

Defense Contract Management Agency. (2012). Earned value management system (EVMS) program analysis pamphlet (PAP) (DCMA-EA PAM 200.1). Defense Contract Management Agency.

Hinze, J. W. (2012). Construction planning and scheduling (4th ed.). Pearson.

Mubarak, S. (2015). Construction project scheduling and control (3rd ed.). Wiley.

MT381 Unit 10 instructions, in plain terms

The final unit asks students to assemble their schedule into a baseline submittal for an owner's review. The submittal should include a transmittal, a narrative, an assumptions list and the schedule reports, arranged so a reviewer can reproduce every date. Instructors expect the narrative to explain sequence, the critical and near-critical paths, calendars, weather assumptions, procurement and any time left over before the contract completion date. A health check against common metrics is often required, with each result explained. Departures from guides are acceptable if justified. The submittal should state how the schedule will be updated and how resources were treated, so the baseline can serve as the reference for every later update.

Inside the MT381 Unit 10 example

The transmittal and its enclosures open the sample. Scope and sequence follow, then the controlling chain described in plain terms. Calendars are explained month by month, with the seventeen exterior activities named. Procurement and submittal review times come next. A section labels the seven early-finish days as project float and requests nothing for them, under a highlighted line about removing a predictable dispute. Assumptions and exclusions are listed. The health check reports each test with counts, percentages and comments. Resource loading and the update procedure are stated, and a final section explains why the departures were kept, citing Mubarak and Hinze. The order mirrors the reviewer's likely questions, which is the point of the format.

MT381 Unit 10 rubric: what earns full points

Baseline submittals are usually marked on completeness, clarity, technical quality and how well they anticipate the reviewer's questions. A narrative that lets a reviewer reproduce the dates earns the core marks. Rubrics reward explaining calendars, weather and procurement before presenting results. Addressing early completion and float ownership directly shows maturity. A health check with every departure explained, rather than hidden or forced into compliance, demonstrates technical judgment. Stating the update procedure and resource assumptions shows the baseline is meant to be used. Sources, including the DCMA guidance, appear in APA 7, and every figure matches the earlier units, from the activity count to the switchgear lead time. Reviewers notice when a narrative and its reports disagree.

MT381 Unit 10 help: mistakes that cost points

Submittals often send the schedule reports with a one-paragraph narrative, leaving the reviewer to guess at calendars and assumptions. Others ignore the gap between early finish and contract completion, which invites a dispute later. Health checks are frequently reported as pass or fail with no explanation, or the schedule is altered to meet a guide at the cost of accuracy. Resource assumptions are rarely stated. Update procedures are missing, so no one knows how the baseline will be used. Before submitting, imagine a reviewer who has never seen your project and has only the package. If that reviewer could not recompute a single date or explain a single departure from the guides, the narrative needs more.

Get an MT381 Unit 10 example written to your instructions

A baseline submittal needs the finished network, or the scope your Unit 10 prompt defines, plus the contract dates, any specification language it quotes and the rubric. From those, the first submittal is prepared free within 24-48h, transmittal through health check, with each departure from common thresholds explained instead of hidden. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.

More MT381 papers and BS in Business Administration samples

MT381 Unit 10 questions, answered

Can a baseline show completion before the contract date?

It can, but it should say so and explain how the gap is treated. Some owners reject early-finish baselines, fearing claims for delay to an early date; others accept them if the gap is labeled as shared float. Check your contract's language, then state your position in the narrative rather than leaving the reviewer to guess.

What is the DCMA fourteen-point assessment?

A set of schedule health checks developed by the Defense Contract Management Agency, covering logic, leads, lags, relationship types, hard constraints, high float, negative float, high duration, invalid dates, resources, missed tasks, a critical path test and two performance indexes. Construction networks often depart from some thresholds for good reason; explain each departure.

What belongs in the schedule narrative?

Enough for a reviewer to reproduce and judge the dates: sequence, critical and near-critical paths, calendars, weather assumptions, procurement lead times, submittal review periods, crew assumptions and any constraints. Many specifications list required narrative contents, so follow yours first. A narrative that merely repeats the bar chart in words adds nothing.

Where can I find a free MT381 Unit 10 sample paper?

The full MT381 Unit 10 baseline schedule submittal is on this page, with a narrative and a fourteen-point health check for a medical office building.

How does the MT381 Unit 10 sample treat finishing seven days before the contract date?

It labels the seven working days project float under the contract's float clause and asks for no compensation for finishing early or extension for using the float.