Three-Week Lookaheads
The lookahead is a short-interval view of the live CPM schedule, so the weekly coordination meeting works from the same dates as the master schedule instead of a separate spreadsheet.
Open it
Click Lookahead in the project's view buttons.
The header shows the window, for example "3-week window · Nov 2 → Nov 20", with counts of critical, near-critical, and total activities.
What's in it
- Activities starting in the next three weeks with 5 days of total float or less. Zero float is critical. 1 to 5 days is near-critical.
- Plus anything already in progress, whatever its float.
Columns: WBS, Activity (with a CP badge for critical), Start, Finish, Float, and %. Rows are in start-date order.
If you see "Nothing critical or in-progress in this window", the next three weeks are clear of critical work. Check the full Gantt for non-critical activities starting soon.
Print it
- Download PDF on the lookahead.
- Export ▾ → Lookahead PDF… to choose paper, orientation, and other options.
- Export ▾ → Field pack PDF for a ready-made three-week pack for the trailer.
Email it every week
Owners and Editors can send the lookahead automatically. Click Send / Schedule on the lookahead, then:
- Under Distribution list, name the list (for example "Project stakeholders"), enter Emails one per line or separated by commas, and click Save list.
- Under Weekly schedule, choose the List, the Day, the Hour (UTC), and how many Weeks to include (1 to 12), and click Add schedule.
Each schedule has Send now, Pause or Enable, and Delete. Remember that the hour is UTC. 13:00 UTC is 8 or 9 a.m. Eastern, depending on daylight saving time.
Make the lookahead work in the field
Turn the lookahead into commitments: build the week on the pull board, promise activities on the weekly work plan, and let superintendents record progress from their phones.
The blog has more on running a three-week lookahead.