Decision Panel

The Decision Panel scores and ranks your project's milestones by risk, helping you decide where to focus. It uses a 7-layer analysis engine that combines critical path data, dependency graphs, progress trajectories, and blocker status to produce actionable recommendations.

Accessing the Decision Panel

Click the Schedule ribbon tab.
Click the Decision Panel button.

Milestone Tiers

Each milestone is classified into a risk tier based on the combined scoring:

Tier	Colour	Meaning
Blocker	Red	Milestone is blocked — one or more predecessors have unresolved blockers or critical-path violations
Critical	Orange	High probability of missing the milestone date without intervention
High	Amber	Significant risk — schedule slippage or cost overrun detected in the dependency chain
Medium	Yellow	Moderate risk — some predecessor tasks are behind but recovery is feasible
Watch	Blue	Minor variance — worth monitoring but no action needed yet
Done	Green	Milestone already completed

The 7-Layer Scoring Engine

The Decision Panel analyses each milestone through these layers in sequence:

Graph Validation — checks for dependency cycles and orphaned milestones
Topological Sort — orders milestones by dependency chain depth
Critical Path — identifies which milestones sit on the critical path
Milestone Scoring — combines delay days, blocker count, velocity trend, and cost variance into a composite score
Ranking — sorts milestones by composite score and assigns tiers
Recovery Advisor — generates recommended actions for at-risk milestones
UI Rendering — presents the ranked list with drill-down detail

Recovery Advisor

For milestones in the Blocker, Critical, or High tiers, the panel generates recovery actions ranked by impact and effort:

Blocker resolution — resolve the specific comment or issue flagged as a blocker
Deadline breach — task has passed its end date; reassign or reschedule
Velocity detection — progress is stalling; investigate why
Parallelisation — suggest tasks that could run concurrently
Scope trim — reduce scope on non-critical predecessors
Resource reallocation — shift resources from low-priority tasks

Trajectory Modes

The panel offers three forecast modes that adjust how optimistically it projects future progress:

Mode	Weight	When to use
Conservative	0.5×	Team has a history of slipping — assume slower progress
Balanced	1.0×	Default — uses current velocity as-is
Aggressive	2.0×	Team is accelerating or extra resources have been added

The Decision Panel updates in real time as you change task progress, dates, or dependencies. You don't need to manually refresh it.