“What if you could see the impact of your decisions before you had to make them?” asks Hilal Demircapa.
Uncertainty affects planning and scheduling every day. Picture the level of control you’d have if you could look past it. You could see how your decisions would alter the timeline or the size of your site teams or your delivery costs and budget: decision-making made clear.
“To make this possible, Lead Consultant Nick Martinis and Senior Consultant Liezle Dollente from our visual planning team have created the Visual Comparison tool,” Hilal explains. “With this model in their pockets, commercial teams can quickly and easily compare different scenarios and get visibility over the effect of their decisions.”
As with the Visual Lookahead tool, Hilal and her team have developed a simulation to show you exactly how the Visual Comparison model runs and what it looks like in action.
Click to play:
This simulation shows how Visual Comparison translates theoretical uncertainties into a clear comparison between two eventualities: the current plan and the what-if scenario.
"For this example, we wanted to show how the schedule will be impacted if we increase the number of people working on the wall installation to finish that wall earlier," says Hilal. "The simulation reveals how this change impacts other activities as well as the histogram."
In the demo, the original plan has a certain number of people assigned to this task. Hilal then looks at how changing this number impacts the schedule. As the simulation plays out, you can see precisely how it affects the timeline, the histogram (number of people), and even the location impact – whether it’s possible to fit that many people in the area.
“It’s not just about the speed of your decision-making. It’s about feasibility. It’s one thing to say, ‘we'll get it done faster,’ but without checking if 40 workers can physically fit into the space, it’s just wishful thinking.”
Hilal
What if you rely on non-visual tools to run these tests?
It's possible to test what-if scenarios without tools like this, but as Nick explains it, the process is slow and manual. “Often, teams plot hypothetical changes on a PowerPoint, rely on drawings of coloured circles, and hope it makes sense to everyone. It’s a tedious, error-prone process open to misinterpretation – especially on large, complex projects.”
Standard planning tools like Primavera P6 and ASTA are useful for scheduling, but they don’t provide visual clarity. Nick and Liezle recognised the gap: site teams needed more than a list of tasks with dates and dependencies, and commercial teams needed visibility over how changes affected cost.
To get control over the project – and to keep it, when faced with daily challenges – they needed to be able to see the impact of their decisions in space and time, in one view.
How Marta used Visual Comparison to get clarity
Being able to visualise two realities and see the differences has enabled one of our clients, Planning Lead Marta Coll, to reduce risk and strengthen relationships with the end client.
“Thanks to this, our programme is now very robust. We use the model internally to check for issues before presenting it to the client, and when they do raise questions, it challenges us to make sure everything is accurate."
- Speeding up execution? Review how many people you’ll really need.
- More people on site? Check to see if it’s physically possible.
- Spending more? Track how changes will affect your costs.
This approach has given her control, not just of the when but also the how. Decisions are backed by hard, visual data. You can see the logic behind each possibility. Teams feel empowered, and everyone has a shared reference point – one clear picture of the present as well as possible futures.
“It's a shift from 'we think' to 'we know'. Site teams and commercial teams alike can see the trade-offs they’re proposing with complete clarity.”
Hilal
A model for comparing any two scenarios
While the simulation focuses on the tool’s “what if” applications, the model can also be used to visualise a range of other planning and controls scenarios – “anywhere that a comparison needs to be drawn between one eventuality and other,” Hilal explains.
Planned vs. actual is a good example. Run through the model, you can quickly and easily visualise how the real, on-the-ground results compare to the planned outcomes, key for tracking progress, learning lessons, and ensuring transparent, effective delivery.
It can also be used to compare commercial changes, such as when the scope shifts and the plan needs to be adjusted accordingly. Being able to “test” adjustments in this tool helps you to weigh up trade-offs to identify the best way forward for your project.
What if you were using a tool like this?
“Laminar’s Visual Planning team has been flexible, adaptable, and very quick,” Marta explains. “You send an email or a message, and the same day you get a quote or a quick call to clarify details. Once work is agreed, they get started straight away.
“They also ask the right questions because of their experience with similar projects. Beyond fulfilling your request, they suggest things that have worked well for other clients. They know what will be valuable for the client, and that kind of insight is priceless.”
When a single decision can have knock-on effects across the schedule, tools like this aren’t just process improvements; they turn the teams using them into active controllers, capable of influencing planning quickly and confidently to achieve the desired outcome.
Picture the next planning decision you need to make – only this time, you can already see how it ends.
