Practical, experience-based project management lessons for project engineers, developing project managers, and field professionals.
Friday Field Notes #14: Look-Aheads Should Match Reality
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Good morning team, This week’s topic: look-ahead schedules. 1. From the Field A look-ahead should represent what the project team actually believes is going to happen over the next few weeks. That sounds obvious, but I’ve seen look-aheads continue showing activities that everyone onsite already knows are not going to start on the dates listed. At that point, the document stops being a planning tool and becomes an exercise in updating dates. A useful look-ahead should reflect current field conditions, access, manpower, equipment, subcontractors, deliveries, approvals, and the sequence the superintendent actually intends to follow. If reality has changed, the look-ahead should change with it. 2. Leadership Perspective A realistic plan is more useful than an optimistic one that nobody believes. Good leaders make it acceptable to adjust the plan when conditions change while still holding the team accountable for understanding why. 3. Field Observation One of the best conversations to have while reviewing a look-ahead is simply asking, “Can we actually start this activity when we say we can?” That usually leads to better questions about prerequisites, manpower, equipment, materials, approvals, and access. The value is not just identifying the date; it is identifying what must be true for that date to work. 4. Spreadsheet Tip This week’s formula: IF with TODAY If Column B contains the activity start date and Column C contains the finish date, use: =IF(AND(TODAY()>=B2,TODAY()<=C2),"ACTIVE","") The formula displays ACTIVE when today falls between the planned start and finish dates. It can be useful in simple look-ahead schedules or activity trackers where you want the current work to stand out automatically. 5. Question for the Week Which activity on your current look-ahead is least likely to start when the schedule says it will? Have a great weekend, Dan |
Friday Field Notes
Practical, experience-based project management lessons for project engineers, developing project managers, and field professionals.
Good morning team, This week’s topic: project schedules. 1. From the Field A project schedule is obviously a planning tool, but I’ve found that its real value comes from how well it helps people understand what is supposed to happen next. A schedule can be technically correct and still be difficult to use. If the field team cannot tell what areas should be available, when subcontractors are needed, or what activities are driving the next few weeks of work, the schedule is not doing much to...
If you’re new here, Friday Field Notes is a short weekly newsletter built around practical project management lessons from the field. I originally started writing these notes for Project Engineers I was helping develop. The goal was simple: give them something useful they could read in a few minutes and apply to a real project. A lot of project management is learned through formal training, procedures, software, and project controls. But some of the most important lessons come from...
FRIDAY FIELD NOTES #12 Submittals Protect the Work Good morning team, This week’s topic: submittals. 1. From the Field Submittals are sometimes treated as an administrative requirement that must be cleared before the work can begin. In practice, they serve a much more important purpose. A submittal gives the project team an opportunity to confirm that a proposed material, procedure, supplier, plan, or piece of equipment meets the contract requirements before it is incorporated into the work....