If you have ever managed a complex capital project schedule with over 1,000 tasks and a deep, multi-level Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), you know the struggle. You sit down to do a major replanning exercise, shifting dates and adjusting predecessors across multiple work packages.
You change one date. Then… you wait. The system crunches the numbers. The screen refreshes. Finally, you can make the second change.
In the world of high-stakes project management, those seconds add up to hours of lost productivity. But sometimes, you do want that instant feedback.
At Frontrol, we understand that planning isn’t a “one size fits all” activity. That’s why we are excited to introduce a game-changing feature in PACE: the On-Demand Auto Schedule Toggle.
The Planner’s Dilemma: Two Very Different Scenarios
Every Project Planner faces two distinct modes of operation, and most software forces you to pick just one.
Scenario 1: The “Heavy Lift” (Replanning) Imagine you are restructuring a major phase of a project. You need to update start dates, durations, and dependencies for 50 different tasks within a 1,000+ line item schedule.
- The Problem: If the scheduling engine re-calculates the entire Critical Path after every single keystroke, the lag becomes unbearable. You lose your flow.
- The Need: You want to “Batch” your changes—make all 50 edits rapidly without interruption—and then tell the system, “Okay, now calculate the schedule.”
Scenario 2: The “Quick Tweak” (Impact Analysis) On a different day, you are in a meeting and need to see the immediate impact of a delay. If “Task A” moves by two days, does it push “Task B” beyond the deadline?
- The Problem: If you have to manually trigger a calculation every time, it feels clunky.
- The Need: You want instant gratification. You change a date, and the successor tasks shift immediately, showing you the new reality in real-time.
The PACE Solution: Control at Your Fingertips
We believe the software should adapt to the user, not the other way around. With the new update to PACE, we have handed the control back to the planner.
You now have a dynamic Auto Schedule option directly on your planning board.
- Turn Auto Schedule OFF: Perfect for that heavy replanning session. Update dates, modify predecessors, and rearrange your WBS freely. The system waits for you. Once you are done with your bulk edits, hit calculate once, and you are done.
- Turn Auto Schedule ON: Ideal for fine-tuning. Tweak a duration and watch the cascade effect instantly.
Why This Matters?
The best part of this feature is its flexibility. This isn’t a rigid “implementation setting” or a backend configuration that requires an admin to change.
It is a real-time decision.
You can start your morning with Auto Schedule OFF to load in a new baseline plan, and switch it ON in the afternoon to simulate a delay scenario during a team review.
At Frontrol, our mission is to make project management intuitive for the Engineering and Construction industries. By removing the friction from scheduling, we let planners focus on what they do best: finding the most efficient path to project completion.
