OPS.10.2:1 - Problem frame

Use this when a team must deliver particular results by particular times, but a list of tasks and estimated durations does not establish whether the work fits. Two ready tasks compete for one specialist. A test needs an uninterrupted window. A delayed input changes which remaining operation can now postpone delivery.

Construct a finite schedule: assign the required operations to times and resources under their actual conditions. Use it to identify a feasible way to meet the deadline, an obstruction that excludes the deadline, or the choice still unresolved. Then determine which delays the plan can absorb and revise it when a consequential condition changes.

First useful move. Name the recipient’s completion event and deadline. Trace the remaining operations to that event, including required handovers and acceptance. Mark the people, equipment and calendar windows they share. OPS.11.1 supplies that operating account; OPS.15.1 supplies event and clock interpretation.

Practical gain. The planner can state what should start when, which reservations matter, how much postponement is still possible under the chosen arrangement, and what change could recover a threatened commitment.

This method addresses finite delivery timing within the broader capacity and service question of OPS.10. Its subject is the proposed schedule, not the performed work or a new customer promise. Use an adequate existing schedule directly when its conditions still answer the question. Use OPS.10’s demand and capacity analysis when the question instead concerns sustained throughput or a distribution of future delays.

The elementary cases need time intervals, arithmetic and a dependency diagram or equivalent list. A large search may need a scheduling specialist. Known jobs with known durations do not require a probability model.