Look-ahead

The Look-ahead tab lists the incomplete work due in the next 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 16 or 32 weeks, grouped under the WBS, with what each activity is still waiting on.

Reading the bars#

• Green, on time: finishing on or before its planned finish.
• Amber, behind plan: finishing after its planned finish.
• Grey, not statused: its dates are already past without actuals, so it's drawn from the data date.
• A red line along a bar marks the critical path. It's a line, not a colour, because on a programme carrying negative float nearly everything is critical, and red bars would hide which work is on time and which is behind.

Printing it#

Print produces a compact sheet rather than the screen: one line per activity under P6-style WBS bands, a slim bar across the window, small groups kept on one page, headings repeated, and the legend at the foot of every page.

The workbook#

Export Excel gives the same layout as a workbook:

• WBS groups that fold with Excel's + and − buttons;
• bars drawn day by day (week by week for 16 and 32 weeks) from each row's dates, so editing a date moves its bar and its status;
• figures that count only what's on show;
• A3 landscape print set-up;
• a Waiting-on sheet for the constraints conversation.