Look-ahead schedule: what a three-week look-ahead is and how to run one

What a look-ahead schedule is

A look-ahead schedule is a rolling short-term plan. It covers a fixed window, most often three weeks (some teams use two, four or six), and it moves forward by one week every week. It sits between two other plans:

• The master schedule: the full critical path network for the whole project, with logic links, durations and a baseline. It answers "when will we finish?"
• The look-ahead: the next three weeks of that schedule, broken into tasks small enough to assign to a crew or a person, with every constraint listed. It answers "what is ready to do soon, and what is stopping the rest?"
• The weekly work plan: the tasks the team commits to this week, taken only from the ready part of the look-ahead.

The look-ahead does not replace the master schedule. It feeds it. Progress and problems found in the look-ahead go back into the master schedule so the critical path stays honest. If you are new to critical path logic, read the critical path method guide first; the look-ahead assumes you already have a sound network.

Why three weeks, and why it works

Three weeks is long enough to order materials that are in stock, book equipment, get a permit inspection or a design answer, and arrange access. It is short enough that the team can describe the work in real detail and trust the dates. A six-month bar on a Gantt chart called "Fit-out level 2" tells nobody what to do on Tuesday. A look-ahead turns it into "install ceiling grid, zone A, crew 3, Tuesday to Thursday, needs grid delivered and sprinkler test signed off".

The value comes from constraint removal. Most short-term delays are not about the work taking longer than planned. They come from missing inputs: a drawing not approved, a part not delivered, a room not handed over, a decision not made. The look-ahead makes those inputs visible two or three weeks before they bite, while there is still time to chase them.

The same idea works outside construction. An IT rollout team can look ahead at test environments, user accounts and change windows. An event team can look ahead at contracts, artwork approvals and venue access.

How to run a three-week look-ahead, step by step

1. Update the master schedule first. Record actual starts, finishes and remaining durations up to the data date. A look-ahead built on a stale schedule plans the wrong work.
2. Pull the window. Select every activity that is in progress or due to start in the next three weeks. Include near-critical activities, not only critical ones.
3. Break activities into tasks. Split each activity into tasks of a few days at most, each with one responsible crew or person and a clear finish condition.
4. List the constraints for each task. Use a fixed checklist: design information, materials, equipment, labor, prior work complete, access or permits, approvals.
5. Give every constraint an owner and a date. The date must be before the task's planned start, with some buffer.
6. Mark tasks as ready or not ready. A task is ready only when all its constraints are cleared or certain to clear in time.
7. Build next week's work plan from ready tasks only. Keep a few ready tasks in reserve in case something falls through.
8. Review last week. Count what was committed and what was completed, and record the reason for each miss.
9. Feed changes back. If the look-ahead shows an activity will slip, update the master schedule and check the effect on the critical path.

Hold the meeting at the same time each week, keep it to about an hour, and invite the people who own the work and the constraints: supervisors, the planner, procurement, design coordination.

Look-ahead template with a worked example

Here is part of a look-ahead for an office fit-out, prepared on a Monday with the window covering weeks 1 to 3.

Task	Owner	Week	Constraint	Constraint owner and date	Ready?
Ceiling grid, zone A	Crew 3	1	Sprinkler test signed off	Site engineer, Fri week 0	Yes
Ceiling grid, zone B	Crew 3	2	Grid delivery for zone B	Procurement, Wed week 1	No
Data cabling, floor 2	IT contractor	2	Cable route drawing approved	Design lead, Tue week 1	No
Partition walls, meeting rooms	Crew 1	1	None	None	Yes
Kitchen units	Joinery supplier	3	Final layout from client	Project manager, Fri week 1	No

Last week the team committed to 20 tasks and completed 17. The share of commitments kept is 17 / 20 = 0.85, or 85%. The three misses were one late delivery, one crew absence and one task that depended on unapproved drawings. That last one should never have been committed: it was not ready. The fix is in the process, not in working harder: no task enters the weekly plan with an open constraint.

Track this commitment ratio week by week. A rising ratio means the team is getting better at screening work. A falling ratio, with the same reasons repeating, points to a supply or design problem that needs a manager's attention.

Common look-ahead mistakes

• Copying the master schedule. If the look-ahead has the same bars at the same level of detail, it adds nothing. It must be more detailed.
• Listing tasks without constraints. A list of dates is not a look-ahead. The constraint column is the point.
• Committing to work that is not ready. Optimism in the meeting becomes a miss next week.
• Never feeding back. A look-ahead that drifts away from the master schedule hides slippage until it reaches a milestone.
• Blaming people for misses. Record reasons, not names. The aim is to find patterns you can fix.
• Skipping weeks. The rhythm is the method. A look-ahead updated once a month is just an old plan.

How to do this in Critova

In Critova, update progress and set the data date on the project schedule, then read the Gantt chart for the next three weeks: the data-date line shows where "now" is, and total float tells you which activities are critical or near-critical. Break activities into tasks with assignees, due dates and checklists, and use a checklist item for each constraint so nothing starts with an open item. Team members report progress from the My Work page, which works on a phone, and you can export the activity register to Excel if you prefer to print the look-ahead sheet for the meeting. See the scheduling features for details.

Critova does not compute a commitment ratio for you; keep that count in your meeting notes or the exported sheet.