US Patent 7912746 Method and system for analyzing schedule trends

A method for determining a variance trend in schedule data includes retrieving schedule data comprising a task description of a task and a plurality of milestones associated with the task including 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. The method further includes calculating a first variance by comparing the first updated deadline to the baseline deadline, calculating a second variance by comparing the second updated deadline to the baseline deadline, automatically determining the variance trend in schedule data by comparing the first variance to the second variance, and automatically generating a display representing the variance trend.