I’ve sat in a lot of baseline reviews.

Most of them have the same gap.

Not in the logic.

Not in the durations.

In the assumptions.

Design confirmed by Week 6.

Approvals through in four weeks.

Key resources available from Month 3.

The schedule is built around those dates.

But nobody asked:

What happens if one of them is wrong?

I call it optimism in spreadsheet form.

The program looks right.

The critical path is connected.

The milestones are set.

And underneath all of it – untested assumptions holding the whole thing up.

There are three questions I’ve learned to ask before any baseline gets signed off:

1. What is actually driving our completion date?

Not the longest path on paper. The real controlling sequence today.

2. Where are the hotspots?

Every program has two or three areas carrying disproportionate risk.

Most teams can’t name them without looking at the schedule first.

The best teams name them without being asked.

3. What happens to the program when this assumption fails?

Not if. When.

Walk it through. If the design slips two weeks, what moves?

These aren’t complex questions.

But I’ve rarely seen them asked in the room where the baseline gets approved.

That’s not a sign the team failed.

It’s a sign they built the baseline and forgot to test it.

A baseline that hasn’t been challenged hasn’t been finished.

Which of those three questions is hardest to get your team to ask honestly?