The Sketchdule 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.
Importing a mixture of milestones and summary activities from Primavera P6
P6 treats the WBS as structure, not activities. Sketchdule rebuilds it automatically, keeps milestones and summaries distinct, and lets you pick exactly what imports.
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.