Skip to content
Kairos OneBook a demo
Menu
Intermediate · 2 min read

Look-ahead schedule

The two-to-six-week slice of the plan used to run the work — where the master schedule meets the field.

Working definition

A look-ahead is the short-window extract of the schedule — commonly two, three, or six weeks — that superintendents and foremen actually run the job from: what starts, what finishes, what crews and prerequisites each item needs. It is the bridge between the CPM master schedule and daily execution, and the place where a disconnect between the two becomes visible first.

Key takeaways

  • The master schedule answers "when will the project finish"; the look-ahead answers "what must happen in the next few weeks to make that true." Good look-aheads carry constraints and readiness — materials on site, drawings released, access available — because near-term work fails on prerequisites more often than on durations.
  • A look-ahead that is not generated from the master schedule is a second, competing plan — and when the two diverge, the master quietly becomes a reporting artifact rather than the plan of record.
01

What it is for

The master schedule answers "when will the project finish"; the look-ahead answers "what must happen in the next few weeks to make that true." Good look-aheads carry constraints and readiness — materials on site, drawings released, access available — because near-term work fails on prerequisites more often than on durations.

02

The tie-back owners should insist on

A look-ahead that is not generated from the master schedule is a second, competing plan — and when the two diverge, the master quietly becomes a reporting artifact rather than the plan of record. The check is straightforward: activities on the look-ahead should exist in the network, and work completed off the look-ahead should reconcile with the next monthly update. Where crews consistently work a different sequence than the network shows, the network needs correcting — that divergence is exactly what out-of-sequence counts measure after the fact.

Sources and scope

Follow the reference trail.

This guide is original educational commentary. Kairos reference records identify the source organizations, editions and scope behind this guidance. The original publishers retain their publications and rights.

Schedule Assessment Guide: Best Practices for Project SchedulesU.S. Government Accountability Office · checked 2026-08-01UFGS 01 32 01.00 10: Project ScheduleWhole Building Design Guide / U.S. Department of Defense · checked 2026-08-01Guide for Construction Contract Time Determination ProceduresFederal Highway Administration · checked 2026-08-01