The Sketchedule blog
Field notes for planners.
Practical project-controls how-tos — turning detailed Primavera P6 and MS Project programmes into pictures people can actually read and decide from, faster.
From 3,000 activities to one page: a Level 1 summary from a Level 3 P6 programme
Your detailed schedule is right — it's just unreadable in a boardroom. The exact 5-minute workflow to roll a heavyweight Primavera P6 programme up to a clean Level 1/2 summary, with worked figures, and without rekeying a single date.
Milestones that recolour themselves: conditional, data-driven symbology
Make a milestone change shape and colour the moment a column says "Late" or a forecast slips — computed locally, as you type. No macros, no server.
Swimlane a programme by workstream
Turn a flat activity list into a portfolio wall chart — swimlane bands per workstream or owner, gate curtains, and audience filters, all from one file.
Compare two versions and read the redline
What actually moved since last update? A change register and a paired-bar redline — slips, additions and removals — ready for the decision meeting.
Put an EVM S-curve under your Gantt
Planned, earned and actual value, CPI and SPI, and a manpower histogram — built in, in the browser, under the same bars. No separate tool, no Excel.
The screenshot tax: what pasting a Gantt into PowerPoint really costs you
Grainy, stale, un-editable, and stripped of its data. Why the screenshot-and-paste reflex costs you — and the crisp, live alternative.
Co-edit a programme without putting it on anyone's cloud
Build the summary together in real time over an end-to-end-encrypted channel — live cursors, conflict-free merge, full audit — and the data never touches a server.
Calculated & indicator columns: turn columns into a status story
Compute a variance across columns and surface it as a RAG stoplight, a %-complete pie or a status symbol — a programme you read at a glance, recomputed live.
Curtains, gates and freeze windows
Shade the dates that matter — mobilisation windows, change freezes, shutdowns and phase gates — so the one-pager tells its story instantly.
Baselines, slip bars and the variance story
Set a baseline, show slip bars, fill progress to the data date and draw the status line — what's slipped and what's ahead, in one clean view.
One schedule, three audiences
Filters, collapse and saved views turn one file into an exec, a PMO and a site view — no more three drifting copies.
Refresh, don't rebuild
Re-sync your board summary from the updated P6/MSP master — a reviewable diff shows what changed, added and dropped before you apply it.
Turn an Excel plan into a presentation Gantt
Import a spreadsheet plan, present it as a branded Gantt, and copy the table back out — a clean round-trip for teams who live in Excel.
Build a 6-week look-ahead your site team will use
A rolling short-interval look-ahead from the master — slip bars, a data-date curtain and RAG — refreshed each week, printed clean.
Brand a board pack: header, footer, logo
Turn a summary Gantt into a considered exhibit — logo, title block, legend, theme, and a landscape PDF/PPT that prints exactly as it looks on screen.
Why your board can't read your Level 3
A 3,000-line Gantt exceeds working memory. The cognitive case for summarising — and why RAG and milestones are communication, not dumbing down.
In-chart milestones vs symbol columns
One answers WHEN, the other answers WHAT STATE. When to use each, how to size them, and how to combine a date milestone with a status stoplight.
Five ways a summary schedule lies
Buried critical paths, untraceable milestones, dirty roll-ups, moving baselines, logic-free bars — the tells, and how to keep a summary honest.
Read any schedule, data date first
A reader's guide for non-planners: the data date, completion float, critical path, constraints, baseline and % vs remaining — in the right order.
Open a Primavera .xer without a P6 licence
Been emailed an XER? Drag it into the browser — nothing uploaded — read it, roll it up, and export a PDF/PPT or a read-only link.
Open a Microsoft Project schedule in your browser
Sent a Project XML? Present it instantly with no Project seat — nothing uploaded. (A raw .mpp just needs exporting to Project XML first.)
From Primavera P6 to a PowerPoint slide in five minutes
Import the P6 file, roll it up, dress the story, and export a board slide — skip the screenshot-and-paste ritual entirely.
Send a client a programme that never touches a server
A read-only link that carries the whole schedule inside it, encrypted — the recipient opens it in their browser, no account, no upload.
Run a pull-planning workshop that ends as a real schedule
Sticky notes become dated Gantt activities as the team commits — in the room or live across sites. No more photos of a whiteboard.
The clinical programme one-pager
Phase gates, submission milestones and RAG on one page — presentation-grade and confidential, because nothing leaves the browser.
The EPC board pack: WBS roll-up, earned value and RAG
Build the monthly steering-committee one-pager from the P6 master — phase summary bars, an EVM S-curve, RAG and key milestones.
Turn sprints into a roadmap the board reads
Swimlanes per squad, release milestones and now/next/later — with real dates and dependencies, not just sticky columns.
The launch runway: a countdown timescale and one go-live
A run-of-show anyone can read — countdown axis, freeze-window curtains, workstream lanes and a single prominent go-live.
One wall, every project: the portfolio swimlane chart
A PMO master across several projects — a swimlane per project, roll-ups and key milestones, gate curtains and RAG — the leadership room's "where is everything" view.
A tender programme exhibit that looks considered
A credible summary programme for a submission — phases, key milestones, a mobilisation curtain, branded and exported to PPT/PDF — without exposing the working plan.
A campaign calendar with a cumulative-spend S-curve
Time-phased channels as swimlanes, launch and freeze milestones, and a spend S-curve underneath — budget pacing visible at a glance.
A funder-ready work-package timeline in an afternoon
Work packages as swimlanes, deliverables as milestones, dependencies and phases — a proposal-grade research Gantt, free and in the browser.
More how-tos on the way — import & refresh, look-ahead reporting, and board-pack design.