Rough-in is the phase between framing and drywall, and it is the one chance anyone gets to put wiring where it belongs without cutting anything open later. Everything that happens after it — trim, fixtures, final inspection, and every change order the owner regrets — is shaped by decisions made during this window.
It starts before the site. We read the electrical prints, run the load calculation, and confirm the service size and panel location against what the utility can actually deliver. On commercial work we're also checking the equipment schedule, because a piece of kitchen or shop equipment with a nameplate nobody read is the most common source of a late, expensive circuit addition.
On site, the sequence is temporary power, then underground or slab work if the design calls for it, then panels and homeruns, then device boxes and branch circuits. Boxes get set to the finished wall depth, not to the stud face, because a box that ends up recessed behind drywall is a correction and a failed inspection. Holes through framing get bored in the drilling zone and protected with nail plates where they need to be.
The inspector at wall-cover is checking box fill, conductor sizing, support and securing intervals, protection from physical damage, grounding and bonding, and whether the panel is where the plans said it would be. None of that is subjective, and none of it should be a surprise on inspection day if the work was done to the drawings.
Where schedules slip is almost always coordination. HVAC needs the same joist bays, plumbing wants the same wall cavities, and the framer has already moved a wall six inches without telling anyone. The fix is not heroics on inspection day — it is walking the building with the other trades before anyone starts pulling wire, which costs an hour and saves a week.