Patent ID: 7912746

Claim:
A method for determining a variance trend in schedule data, comprising: retrieving schedule data from a database, the schedule data comprising: a task description of a task; and a plurality of milestones associated with the task, the milestones comprising a baseline milestone associated with a baseline deadline, a first updated milestone associated with a first updated deadline, and a second updated milestone associated with a second updated deadline; calculating, by a processor, a first variance by comparing the first updated deadline to the baseline deadline; calculating, by the processor, a second variance by comparing the second updated deadline to the baseline deadline, the first variance associated with a time prior to that of the second variance; automatically determining, by the processor, the variance trend in schedule data that indicates a change in variance by subtracting the second variance from the first variance, a positive variance trend indicating that the first and second updated deadlines are approaching the baseline deadline; and automatically generating a display representing the variance trend.