Quiz: Timeline Construction

Target: 70% or higher. Have a calculator and paper.

Section 1: Multiple Choice (1 point each)

1. The chapter's threshold concept is:

  • A) A timeline should be built as early as possible
  • B) The timeline is the product, and it inherits everything
  • C) Every vendor needs the full timeline
  • D) Buffers should be added throughout
Answer **B).** **A master timeline is not a fresh document.** It is the point at which every unresolved thing in the project becomes a time, or fails to — an unfunded item becomes a moment when somebody discovers there is no money, **an estimate that was true in month four becomes a block that is the wrong length.** **Which is why the first act of timeline construction is an audit rather than construction.** *Reference:* §25.1

2. In the audit, "living with it" is:

  • A) An admission of failure
  • B) A legitimate status
  • C) A temporary holding category
  • D) Only for budget items
Answer **B).** **A project with eleven open findings and five months to go will not close all eleven**, and marking them all "to be resolved" produces a plan that depends on eleven future events. **"Living with it" is a decision**, and it produces different behaviour — a buffer, a contingency line, or an explicit conversation with the couple, none of which happen if it is filed as pending. *Reference:* §25.1

3. The test for whether an anchor is hard is:

  • A) Whether it is in a contract
  • B) What happens if it moves by twenty minutes
  • C) Whether the couple care about it
  • D) Whether a vendor set it
Answer **B).** **A cost means soft. A breach, an impossibility, or a person who is not there means hard.** At Reyes–Whitfield there are exactly five: access at 7:00 · the ceremony at 4:25 · sunset at 7:20 · **amplified music and alcohol ending at 10:30** · and removal by 10:00 Sunday. **Everything else on four pages is soft.** *Reference:* §25.2

4. The ceremony time is:

  • A) Always a hard anchor
  • B) Frequently soft, with about fifteen minutes of usable float
  • C) Determined by the venue
  • D) Fixed by the invitation
Answer **B).** Planners treat it as the hardest point in the day **because it is what the invitation says** — but the invitation fixes the *arrival* time, not the start. **The ceremony can still begin at 4:31**, and those fifteen minutes are one of the most useful floats in the day: a late guest, a farm track, a shower that will pass, a person who needs a moment. **And what it is not for: absorbing your own lateness.** *Reference:* §25.2, §25.6a

5. Backward planning is preferred because:

  • A) It is faster
  • B) Forward planning hides the failure at the end; backward shows it at the top
  • C) Vendors prefer it
  • D) It produces fewer pages
Answer **B).** A forward timeline ends at *some* time, and if that time is 4:10 the planner adjusts the last block by twenty minutes and moves on. **A backward timeline runs out visibly, at the top, where a change is still possible** — and where the options (earlier access, a day-before install, a different arrival time) still exist. *Reference:* §25.3

6. A task is on the critical path if:

  • A) It is important
  • B) Delaying it by ten minutes delays the whole day by ten minutes
  • C) A vendor is doing it
  • D) It happens in the afternoon
Answer **B).** And it has **float** if delaying it by ten minutes delays nothing. **At Reyes–Whitfield the critical path is six consecutive tasks with zero float**, occupying 11:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. — **which means any delay before 11:00 is absorbable and any delay after is not.** *Reference:* §25.4

7. The fragile hour means:

  • A) The hour before the ceremony
  • B) The hours where float is zero, and where the planner should be physically present
  • C) The first hour of the reception
  • D) The last hour of load-in
Answer **B).** **Most of a wedding day is robust.** A vendor twenty minutes late at 9:00 a.m. is a non-event; the same vendor at 1:00 p.m. delays the wedding. **Which means a planner's attention should not be evenly distributed — and usually is.** At Reyes–Whitfield the fragile hours are **1:00 to 3:15**, which is also when a planner is most tempted to go and deal with something else. *Reference:* §25.4

8. The compression test asks:

  • A) How much can be cut from the budget
  • B) What you would do if each critical task ran 25% long
  • C) How many people are needed
  • D) Whether the timeline fits on one page
Answer **B).** **And its output is not a plan — it is a list of which tasks you can do something about and which you cannot.** At almost every wedding **the tent is the one you cannot**, which is why the wind clause and the tent company's arrival time matter more than anything else on the page. *Reference:* §25.4

9. A twenty-minute delay to hair and makeup at 1:00 p.m.:

  • A) Propagates through the whole afternoon
  • B) Is absorbed, invisibly, by the hidden buffer
  • C) Costs twenty minutes of dancing
  • D) Delays the ceremony
Answer **B).** **That is exactly what the hidden buffer is for.** Ready at 3:20 against a published 3:00 and a held 3:30. **Nobody knows.** **Contrast the same twenty minutes at 8:40 a.m.** (propagates fully through a zero-float chain) **and at 8:15 p.m.** (comes out of the dancing, because the end is contractual). **Same twenty minutes, three completely different consequences.** *Reference:* §25.4a

10. Which of these should NOT be buffered?

  • A) Hair and makeup
  • B) Family photographs
  • C) Dinner service
  • D) The toasts
Answer **C) Dinner service.** **It is not variance, it is arithmetic** — tables ÷ servers × ~4 minutes, × a realism multiplier, × courses (Chapter 14). **A predictable block does not need a buffer; it needs the ratio to be right**, which is a month-six conversation rather than a timeline one. **Contrast hair and makeup**, which is genuinely variable because person two's extra ten minutes is person six's forty. *Reference:* §25.6

11. A buffer that people know about:

  • A) Is more effective, because they can plan around it
  • B) Is not a buffer — a stated end time is what people work to
  • C) Should be shared only with the couple
  • D) Should be doubled
Answer **B).** *"2:15–3:00 dressing (buffer to 3:30)"* means dressing now takes until 3:30. **Publish the earlier time and hold the later one.** The distributed timeline says 3:00; the planner's copy says 3:30. **And one person must know the truth: whoever is delivering the thing.** An artist who thinks they are thirty minutes late will rush the last face. *Reference:* §25.6

12. The final version of a timeline should be called:

  • A) v9
  • B) FINAL, with a date
  • C) Master
  • D) The latest date only
Answer **B) "FINAL — 10 September."** **At 2 p.m. on a Saturday, a vendor holding v8 and one holding v9 both believe they have the latest, and neither will check.** **"FINAL" with a date is unambiguous from across a field.** And if it changes, it becomes **"FINAL v2 — SUPERSEDES 10 SEPTEMBER"** in large type, re-issued with confirmation — **because a vendor who has not acknowledged has not received it.** *Reference:* §25.8

Section 2: True/False with Justification (1 point each)

13. Every vendor should receive the full master timeline.

Answer **False. Nobody gets the whole timeline.** **The couple** get a simplified version — twelve lines, no load-in, no vendor names. **The wedding party** get only the moments they are in. **Each vendor** gets their extract: their arrival, their tasks, their dependencies, **and the three things around them.** The venue gets the build and strike. **Only the planner has everything, plus the hidden buffers.** **And the extract's three extra lines matter**: a vendor who knows only their own tasks cannot tell whether a delay matters. **Context converts an executor into a participant.**

14. Padding every block by ten per cent is a reasonable approach to variance.

Answer **False, and it fails in two directions at once.** **A wedding's variance is not evenly distributed** — it is concentrated in about four places: hair and makeup (+20 to +50 min) · family photographs (+10 to +25) · the ceremony (+5 to +12) · and the toasts (+5 to +15). **Padding everything produces a timeline forty minutes longer that still fails**, because the four real buffers did not get the time they needed and the predictable blocks got time they did not. **And some things cannot be buffered at all** — a tent erection running thirty minutes over is exposure, not variance, and there is nothing to add.

15. Float and a buffer are the same thing.

Answer **False. A buffer is time you added; float is time the structure already contains.** **You find float by drawing the dependency chain** and asking which tasks can slip without moving anything. **You create a buffer by deciding to.** **Which means float is free and buffers cost** — every minute of buffer is a minute the day is longer or a block is tighter. **And the trap: float built into the published plan stops being float and becomes a later start time.** Plan to 4:25 and hold 4:40.

16. A vendor arriving forty minutes late is always a problem.

Answer **False. The question is never how late somebody is — it is what the next thing is waiting for.** At 8:30 a.m. the build has hours of float on non-critical tasks and the critical path has not started. **Forty minutes there is a non-event, unless it is the tent company, in which case it is the most important thing happening.** At 1:20 p.m. the critical path has zero float and ten minutes is ten minutes off the 45-minute rule. **A planner who treats every delay identically will be exhausted by two o'clock.**

17. A rain version is a variant of the same timeline.

Answer **Partly false — it needs something the fair-weather version does not: a crew.** The ceremony moves to the barn, **which means the dance floor is cleared and re-laid, the chairs are moved, and cocktail hour goes to a tent that is set for dinner.** That is roughly twenty-five minutes of work by four people, at a specific time, **on a day when nobody was rostered for it.** **Those four people have to be identified in advance even though they will probably not be used** — which is the cheapest insurance available and is free right up until nobody did it. **And it needs a decision point, a decision-maker, and a deadline** (Chapter 28).

Section 3: Short Answer (2 points each)

18. A venue permits access at 10:00 and guests arrive at 2:30. Build: marquee 3h · flooring 2h (after marquee) · tables 45m · linen 30m · floral 45m · settings 40m · lighting 2h (parallel, must finish before floral). Does it fit?

Sample Answer **Backward from 2:30, less the 45-minute rule = complete by 1:45.** | | Duration | Must finish by | |---|---:|---| | Settings | 40 | **1:45** | | Floral | 45 | 1:05 | | Linen | 30 | 12:20 | | Tables | 45 | 11:50 | | Flooring | 120 | 11:05 | | **Marquee** | 180 | **9:05** | **The marquee must start at 9:05 and access is 10:00. It does not fit — by 55 minutes.** **The options, in order of cost:** | | Saves | |---|---:| | **Negotiate access at 9:00** | **60** | | Marquee the day before | 180 | | Two crews on flooring | 30–45 | | The 45-minute rule to 20 | 25 | | **Move guest arrival to 3:00** | 30 — **only available before −10 weeks** | | Reduce the floral install | 15 | **The first is almost always right, because it is the only one that buys time without taking it from something else.** **And the finding that matters more than the arithmetic: this had to be discovered in month six.** Two of the options stop existing when the invitations print. *Rubric:* Must apply the 45-minute rule; must work backward correctly to 9:05; must state the shortfall; full credit lists options in cost order and notes which expire at −10 weeks.

19. Trace a twenty-minute delay in three places and say what each costs.

Sample Answer **1. Tent company, 20 min late at 9:00 a.m.** **Propagates fully** — the build chain has zero float. Build completes 3:35 rather than 3:15; guests arrive 3:55. **The 45-minute rule becomes 20.** Recoverable only by adding people to a later task — more hands on place settings. **2. Hair and makeup, 20 min over at 1:00 p.m.** **Does not propagate.** Ready at 3:20 against a published 3:00 and a held 3:30. **Nobody knows, and this is the entire reason the hidden buffer exists.** **3. Toasts, 20 min over at 8:15 p.m.** **Propagates into a hard anchor.** First dance 9:05 rather than 8:45; dancing becomes **85 minutes instead of 105.** Twenty minutes taken directly from the thing the couple ranked second of twelve. **Partially recoverable** by compressing the cake-and-coffee block, which has ~8 minutes of float. **Same twenty minutes. Nothing, nothing visible, and the party.** **Which produces the day's operating rule: before spending attention on a delay, ask which chain it is in and whether the next thing has float.** *Rubric:* All three with propagate/absorb correctly identified; must quantify the evening one in dancing minutes; full credit gives the operating rule.

20. Write the four buffers, say which are published, and explain the hidden one.

Sample Answer | | Buffer | Published? | |---|---:|---| | **Hair and makeup** | **30–45 min** | **No — held** | | **Family photographs** | 10 min | Partly | | **The ceremony** | 10 min | No | | **Toasts** | 10 min | No | **Roughly 65 minutes, in four places, and everything else is either predictable or unbufferable.** **The hidden one:** the distributed timeline says *"ready at 3:00."* The planner's copy says **3:30.** **Because a buffer that is written down is an end time**, and *"2:15–3:00 dressing (buffer to 3:30)"* means dressing takes until 3:30 — not through bad faith, but because a stated end is what people work to. **And one person must know the truth: the makeup artist.** *"I've told everyone 3:00; I actually need you done by 3:30, and I'd rather you were calm than fast."* **An artist who believes they are thirty minutes late will rush the last face**, which is the couple's. **Where buffers do not belong:** after a fixed anchor (that is a gap, and a hundred people will stand in it) · between load-in tasks (the chain is dependencies; one buffer at the end does the job) · **and anywhere the couple can see it.** *Rubric:* Four buffers with durations; must identify the hair-and-makeup one as hidden; must explain why a written buffer is an end time; full credit names the one person who must know and says why.

Section 4: Applied Scenario (5 points)

21. A wedding: 240 guests, a marquee on a private estate. Access 7:00 a.m. Guests arrive 3:00 p.m., ceremony 3:30 outdoors, dinner 6:30 (plated, three courses), first dance 9:30, marquee must be cleared by 11:00 a.m. Sunday. Sunset 8:04. There is no curfew.

The build: marquee 4h · flooring 2.5h (after marquee) · dance floor 1h (after flooring, parallel-able with tables) · tables 1h · linen 45m · floral 1.5h · settings 1h · lighting rig 2.5h (parallel from marquee completion; must finish before floral) · generator and distro 1.5h (any time before lighting test).

The people chain: hair and makeup for seven people, 35 min each, at a house 25 minutes away. Photographer from 12:00.

Produce: (a) does the build fit; (b) the critical path and the fragile hours; (c) the people chain, backward; (d) the buffers; (e) the two things you would check before issuing.

Sample Answer **(a) Does the build fit.** **Backward from 3:00, less the 45-minute rule = complete by 2:15.** | | Duration | Must finish by | |---|---:|---| | Settings | 60 | **2:15** | | Floral | 90 | 1:15 | | Linen | 45 | 11:45 | | Tables | 60 | 11:00 | | Flooring | 150 | 10:00 | | **Marquee** | 240 | **7:30** | **Marquee must start at 7:30. Access is 7:00.** **It fits — with 30 minutes of margin on the critical path.** **And the parallel work checks out:** lighting rig starts at 11:30 (marquee complete) and needs 2.5h, finishing **2:00** — **which is after floral starts at 11:45.** ✗ **That is a conflict.** Lighting must finish before floral (ladders and dressed tables do not coexist — Chapter 17). **Fix, in order:** start the lighting rig at marquee completion **11:30** and compress to 2h with a second technician (**finishes 1:30, still late**) · **or** rig the lighting from the marquee frame before flooring, which most companies will do (**11:30–2:00 becomes 7:30–10:00, parallel with flooring**) · **or** move floral to 1:45–3:15, which breaks the 45-minute rule. **Recommend the second, and it is a phone call in month six.** **Dance floor:** 1h, after flooring (10:00), parallel with tables. **No conflict.** **Generator:** 1.5h, any time before the lighting test. **Schedule 8:00–9:30, off the critical path, ~4h of float.** **(b) Critical path and fragile hours.** **Marquee → flooring → tables → linen → floral → settings.** Six tasks, **7:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.**, with the lighting rig as a parallel constraint on floral's start. **Float: 30 minutes total**, and it sits at the front (access 7:00, start 7:30). **Fragile hours: 11:45 to 2:15** — from floral's start to completion. **Before 11:45 there is 30 minutes of margin; after it there is none**, and the last two tasks are the ones the guests see. **The planner is physically present 11:45–2:15.** **(c) The people chain, backward.** **Ceremony 3:30. Couple at the venue by 2:45** *(before guests at 3:00, so they are not seen arriving)*. | | | | |---|---|---| | 2:20 | Depart the house | **25-min drive** | | **2:05** | Ready; getting-ready photographs done | | | 1:20 | **Dressing — 45 min** | | | **12:50** | **HELD BUFFER — 30 min** | **Published as "ready 1:20"; held to 1:50** | | **8:45–12:50** | **Hair and makeup, 7 people × 35 min = 4h 5m** | | | 8:30 | Artist arrives, sets up | | | **12:00** | **Photographer arrives** — into the last two chairs and the dressing | | **And the finding: hair and makeup starts at 8:45 a.m.** for a 3:30 ceremony, which surprises everybody and is arithmetic. **Seven people at 35 minutes is over four hours** and there is no way to compress it except a second artist (~$300–$500) — which is worth pricing, because it moves the start to 10:50 and gives four people back their morning. **(d) The buffers.** | | | Published? | |---|---:|---| | **Hair and makeup** | **30 min** | **No — held. The artist is told the truth** | | **Family photographs** | 10 | Partly | | **The ceremony** | 10 | No — and there is float here anyway | | **Toasts** | 10 | No | | **And one specific to this build: 30 min at the front of the critical path** | | **Not a buffer — it is float, and it should not be spent by starting at 7:30 instead of 7:00** | **The last row is the important one.** Access is 7:00 and the marquee needs to start at 7:30. **Start it at 7:00.** The thirty minutes is the only margin on a six-task zero-float chain, **and building it into the plan converts it into a later finish.** **(e) The two things I check before issuing.** **1. Every duration re-derived from its current source** (§25.9). Six of them: the marquee company's own figure (not last year's) · **the caterer's service duration against the current guarantee at 240** · the photographer's family-combination count · the ceremony length from the rehearsal · **hair and makeup from the artist, re-confirmed** · and the lighting rig's real time with the parallel option. **2. Every arrival against the thing that must already exist** (§25.7). Specifically: **the caterer, who at a marquee on an estate has no kitchen until the marquee is up and the flooring is down** — and the florist, who at 11:45 needs linen that is finished at 11:45. **Zero margin between two vendors, which is a conversation with both.** **And a third, which is not a check but a flag:** there is **no curfew**, so the evening has float that this timeline is not using. **Sunset is 8:04 and the first dance is 9:30** — golden hour at ~7:30 is mid-dinner, and that collision (Chapter 23) has not been scheduled. *Rubric:* | Criterion | 0 | 1 | 2 | |---|---|---|---| | Build (a) | Works backward | Works backward and states margin | Both, **plus catching the lighting/floral parallel conflict** and giving three fixes in cost order | | Path (b) | Names tasks | Names path and float | Both, **plus identifying the fragile hours precisely and stating the planner is present for them** | | People (c) | Works backward | Correct arithmetic | Both, **plus surfacing that hair and makeup starts at 8:45 a.m.** and pricing a second artist | | Buffers (d) | Names four | Names four and marks held | Both, **plus recognising the 30 min at the front is float, not a buffer, and must not be spent** | | Checks (e) | Names one | Names both | Both, specifically, **plus flagging the unscheduled golden-hour collision** | *Scoring: (a)=1, (b)=1, (c)=1, (d)=1, (e)=1.*

Scoring and Next Steps

Score Assessment What to do
Under 50% Needs review Re-read §25.3, §25.4, §25.6. Redo Part A and B.1.
50–70% Partial Do B.1 and B.3 by hand. The backward build and the cascade are the chapter.
70–85% Solid Proceed to Chapter 26. Do C.1 first — find the critical path in a real timeline.
Over 85% Strong Proceed. Deep Dive: case-study-02.md, then C.4 and E.2.

Regardless of score: do B.7. Run an audit on a real project — or on this book's — in four columns, and be honest about the third. It is the most uncomfortable exercise in the chapter and it is the one that changes practice.