Guide: Scenario Planning

This guide walks you through creating a scenario, editing it independently from the baseline, comparing it, and promoting it when you are ready to commit.

Prerequisites

• A project with at least a few tasks and dependencies already set up
• See Create a Project if you need to get started

Step 1: Open the Scenarios Panel

From your project view, locate the Scenarios control — typically in the top navigation or sidebar. Your current plan is the Baseline scenario.

Step 2: Create a New Scenario

Click New Scenario. A dialog will prompt you for a name.

Choose a name that captures the hypothesis or change this scenario models. Good examples:

• “Delayed Infrastructure Setup”
• “Reduced Team — 3 Devs”
• “MVP Scope Only”
• “External Vendor Dependency”

Click Create. Lineo will copy the current baseline schedule into the new scenario and make it active.

Step 3: Edit the Scenario

With the new scenario active, all changes you make apply only to this scenario. Your baseline remains unchanged.

Try the following to model your hypothesis:

• Drag tasks to new dates to simulate delays or accelerations
• Adjust durations to reflect scope changes or different effort estimates
• Add or remove dependencies to model restructured work
• Change risk levels on specific tasks to reflect new information
• Add narrative updates to document your assumptions within this scenario

As you make changes, the Gantt chart updates live and shows the new projected end date for this scenario.

Step 4: Compare Against the Baseline

Switch to the comparison view (if available) or toggle between the baseline and your scenario using the scenario selector.

Look for:

• End date difference — does the scenario shift delivery earlier or later by how much?
• Task movements — which tasks shifted significantly?
• Critical path changes — did the sequence of constraining tasks change?

If you want a probabilistic comparison, run a Monte Carlo simulation on both the baseline and the scenario separately, then compare the slip probabilities and percentile delays.

Step 5: Promote the Scenario to Baseline

Once you have decided that the scenario represents the plan you are committing to:

1. Open the scenario’s context menu or action panel
2. Click Promote to Baseline
3. Confirm the action

The scenario’s schedule becomes the new baseline. All other scenarios remain intact.

Tips

• Create multiple scenarios before deciding — having two or three alternatives makes the decision more meaningful
• Use the scenario name and narrative updates to record the reasoning behind each model
• Scenarios are persistent: you can return to them later, even after promoting a different one