What Is Schedule Inspector and How Is It Different From Full Monte SRA?

Updated

Barbecana's Schedule Inspector and Full Monte SRA address two different stages of schedule assurance. Schedule Inspector checks whether a project schedule is built to a defensible quality standard; Full Monte SRA runs quantitative schedule risk analysis (QSRA) directly inside Microsoft Project or Primavera P6. If your question is "is this schedule trustworthy," use Schedule Inspector. If your question is "what is the realistic range of finish dates and where is the risk concentrated," use Full Monte SRA. Many teams use both, in that order.

The two products at a glance

Dimension Schedule Inspector Full Monte SRA
Primary purpose Verify schedule quality Quantitative schedule risk analysis
Question answered Is the schedule well-built and compliant? What is the probability of meeting the date?
Method Rule/checklist-based assessment against schedule standards Monte Carlo simulation of the schedule
Where it runs As a Barbecana tool for schedule review Directly within Microsoft Project or Primavera P6 schedules
Typical output Quality findings and assessment results Probabilistic forecasts and risk drivers
Best used Before baselining, before a review gate, or when auditing a contractor's schedule When a realistic forecast range is a business requirement

What Schedule Inspector does

Schedule Inspector is positioned by Barbecana as the "Verify Schedule Quality" product. Its job is to assess whether a schedule meets recognized quality criteria rather than to forecast outcomes. Barbecana's own resources list a "14 Point Schedule Assessment Guide," which reflects the kind of structured, checklist-style evaluation this class of tool supports.

Use it when you need to answer questions such as:

  • Does the schedule follow good practice (logic, constraints, lags, float, and similar checks)?
  • Would it survive a customer or agency schedule review?
  • Has schedule quality degraded after a round of updates?

The output is a judgment about the schedule's construction, not a probability distribution of completion dates.

What Full Monte SRA does

Full Monte SRA is Barbecana's Schedule Risk Analysis system. Per the site, it "performs quantitative risk analysis directly within your Microsoft Project or Primavera P6 schedules, avoiding import/export steps that consume time, and making it easy to publish results right in the source schedule."

That integration detail matters: because the analysis runs inside the source schedule rather than through a separate file exchange, results can be published back into the schedule you already use. The site states the software is trusted by major western Aerospace & Defense contractors, space agencies and private space companies, and major pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers — environments where, in Barbecana's framing, "realistic project forecasts are critical business requirements."

Use it when you need to answer:

  • What is the probability of finishing by the contractual or target date?
  • Which activities or risk factors drive the most schedule uncertainty?
  • How does the forecast range change if a key risk materializes?

How they relate in practice

The two tools are complementary rather than competing:

  1. Build or receive the schedule.
  2. Run Schedule Inspector to confirm the schedule is structurally sound. A poor-quality schedule undermines any risk analysis built on top of it.
  3. Run Full Monte SRA on the validated schedule to produce a probabilistic forecast.
  4. Publish results back into the source Microsoft Project or Primavera P6 schedule.

Skipping step 2 is a common pitfall: quantitative results from a schedule with broken logic or excessive constraints can look precise while being misleading.

Choosing between them

  • Choose Schedule Inspector if your deliverable is a quality verdict, an audit finding, or a pass/fail against a schedule standard.
  • Choose Full Monte SRA if your deliverable is a forecast range, a confidence level for a milestone, or a ranked list of risk drivers.
  • Choose both if you are preparing a schedule for a review gate or a contractual commitment, where quality evidence and probabilistic forecasting are both expected.

Access and licensing notes

Barbecana's site lists a Free Trial and Downloads for Full Monte SRA, and a Free Trial plus Buy Now for Schedule Inspector, with a separate "Purchase Full Monte SRA" page. Full Monte SRA 3.8 Update 3 is noted as available, including a new optional install that does not require Administrator Rights; customers with a current maintenance and support agreement can obtain the new release free of charge. For specifics on trial scope, pricing, and eligibility, contact Barbecana directly at [email protected] or [email protected], or call (281) 971-9825.