Clarity on cost,
schedule and risk.

Specialist cost and schedule risk analysis, assurance and delay analysis for investment, programme and project decisions.Actara connects credible plans, collaborative analysis and practical recommendations to the decisions you need to make.

01 / SPECIALIST SERVICES

Cost & Schedule Risk Analysis

CSRA · Understand uncertainty. Test your options.Bring cost, schedule, delivery logic and risk inputs into an integrated analysis. Understand the range of possible outcomes, identify the main drivers and test how alternative responses affect the forecast.Support investment approval, contingency, target dates and delivery strategy with evidence.What you receive: cost and completion ranges, confidence levels, key drivers, scenario comparisons and recommendations for the decision at hand.

Estimate & Schedule Assurance

ESAR · Establish a credible basis for decisions.Review the scope, assumptions, estimate and schedule before relying on them for approval or risk analysis. Examine the basis of the estimate, schedule logic and the evidence behind the plan.Use assurance ahead of a gate review, a CSRA or a significant change to the baseline.What you receive: prioritised findings, visible assumptions and gaps, and recommended actions to strengthen the plan.

Delay & Claims Support

Delay analysis · Understand change and its consequences.Examine schedule changes, delay events and their effect on planned and actual delivery. Use time-impact and forensic schedule analysis to support claims, dispute discussions and contract negotiations.What you receive: a traceable analysis of the schedule evidence, the effects of change and the assumptions behind the findings.

A clear path from evidence to action.Frame the decision, challenge the plan, engage the team and analyse uncertainty. Explore the approach.Led by Abbas Shakourifar, Actara brings specialist consulting together with free planning tools and practical insights.

Bring your next decision into focus.

Preparing an investment decision, testing a baseline or examining a delay? Start with the question you need answered and the evidence available.

02 / OUR APPROACH

Start with the decision.
Build the evidence around it.

Governance frames project stages and decision gates. Stages produce evidence for gates; decisions feed back into the work. A risk lens applies throughout.

Frame the decision

Clarify the decision, the options, the people accountable and the evidence they need. Governance sets the responsibilities; project stages develop the evidence; gates bring it together for a decision on whether and how to proceed.

Challenge the plan

ESAR · Estimate and schedule assurance

Challenge the basis of the estimate and schedule. Make assumptions, gaps and limitations visible before they become inputs to the analysis. Resolve material weaknesses or explain how they affect the conclusions.

Engage the team. Analyse uncertainty.

CSRA · Cost and schedule risk analysis

Bring the project team and subject-matter experts into the risk discussion. Connect their evidence to cost, schedule and delivery logic. Test scenarios and response choices, then explain the assumptions and limits behind the results.

Turn results into decisions

Explain what the results mean for investment, contingency, delivery strategy and approval conditions. Set out accountable actions and revisit the evidence as the work changes.Tools supporting the method: Actara Studio and Actara Risker are internal tools used within the delivery approach, alongside project evidence and professional judgement.

An illustrated project journey: five stages and decision gates sit within a governance frame, with branching paths representing uncertainty and options.

03 / FREE TOOLS

Practical tools.
Built for planners.

Actara Planner

Planning workshops should focus on the plan, not the software.Actara Planner is a free Excel add-in that lets planners build and work with a real schedule directly in Excel.Create activities and milestones, assign durations and calendars, connect logic, identify the critical path and review the plan. Arrange it visually in Bubble or Schedule layouts, with export to Primavera P6.Simple, visual, and built for planning workshops.

Microsoft Excel Desktop for Windows. VBA macros are required.The free ZIP download includes the add-in and a PDF installation and quick-use guide. Follow the included guide to get started.View the latest release notes.

XER reader

A free XER reader is being considered for a future release. More information will be shared when it is ready.For the thinking behind the tools and the consulting work, visit Insights.

04 / EXPERIENCE

Abbas Shakourifar

The practitioner behind Actara.I work with teams to make cost, schedule and risk understandable, testable and defensible. My focus spans execution planning, estimate and schedule assurance, cost and schedule risk analysis, and delay and claims support.Actara brings that work together with practical planning tools and knowledge from delivery.

View my professional background on LinkedIn.For a current assignment, we can discuss the experience most relevant to your project and the decision you face.

05 / INSIGHTS

Notes from practice.

Technical papers, practical articles and worked examples from Actara will appear here.Planned topics include governance and decision gates, estimate and schedule assurance, and CSRA in practice.

Explore the approach, discover free tools, or discuss your project.