The XER Toolkit surpasses standard DCMA tests, offering over 40 individual, fully customisable integrity checks. This ensures the logic behind your schedule is not just sound, but impeccable.
To access the toolkit’s integrity check, simply select the schedule you wish to test, or even multiple schedules if you desire, from the project selection window. Next, navigate to the Integrity menu on the left of the XER Toolkit. You’ll find an array of preset tests to choose from, including the standard DCMA test. Selecting a test will initiate the integrity check, delivering your results within seconds. You’ll see these displayed in a series of tiles, each showcasing the outcome of a specific check.
On the right side of the screen, you’ll find the overall grade of the schedule, clearly indicating whether it has passed or failed. Each tile features three main areas. First is the “i” button, which provides a description of the test and its objectives. Next is the small cog, which allows you to filter or adjust any values the check applies to your test. Lastly, clicking on the circle in the tile takes you to a filtered view of the flagged tasks in a new tab, enabling you to quickly update your main schedule.
As with all the features in the toolkit, the upper menu adapts to let you customise the settings of the checks. The Thresholds menu allows you to adjust your pass and fail scores. You can select individual or multiple tests and change the score to either a percentage or a number. Adjusting these numbers will update the report. For example, you can change the pass criteria by modifying the number in green. Anything matching or below this number results in a pass. The amber score indicates a warning for anything above the green value, but below or equal to the amber. Finally, anything in red signifies a failure.
The integrity check provides an overall value, which can be managed in the Weighting menu. Here, you can adjust the importance of certain checks. For instance, if you want to emphasise checks on constraints, you can increase the score setting to have a greater influence on the overall score. Conversely, you can reduce the weight of less critical checks to minimise their impact. The toolkit will recalculate and adjust the integrity score to reflect the score settings.
You can precisely target what you want the toolkit to analyse during its checks by using the Filters menu. You can select start and finish dates, specific activities, or exclude certain tasks. You can save filters and share them across the toolkit, ensuring consistency across all results. Once a filter is saved, you can access it by clicking the cogwheel icon on the right of the menu. From here, you can open, delete, and share your filters.
As mentioned, the XER Toolkit offers over 40 individual logic tests that can be performed on your schedule. A full list of tests can be accessed by clicking Metrics on the upper menu. In this window, you will find a list of all available tests, allowing you to select or deselect the checks you need for your schedule. You can select all tests at once by clicking the tick box at the bottom of the menu. After confirming the tests you wish to run, the XER Toolkit will recalculate the schedule’s integrity score based on your selection.
The results of the integrity check can be exported into two formats. The first format is a detailed Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Simply click the button on the top right to download this report. The workbook forensically details all the possible logic issues in your schedule. This allows the planner to review and, if necessary, adjust the test settings to ignore flagged issues that are acceptable to the project.
The second option is to download a summary PDF report. This can be used to demonstrate that QA has been performed on submitted schedules and to provide feedback on received schedules.
Finally, if you create bespoke test settings, you can save them for later use by clicking on Settings. Enter a name for your settings profile. Click the save icon and the profile will be saved. This menu operates similarly to the filter settings management menu. With an admin license, you can also share these settings with the rest of your team by simply selecting the share button and choosing the team to share with.
