Stop Wrestling With Schedule Data… Do This Instead
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Challenge
Your new project is drowning in Primavera files, ad-hoc Power BI dashboards, and a jungle of activity codes no one can explain. Chaos thrives, reports crawl, and leadership wants answers yesterday. On this episode of Beyond Deadlines, co-hosts Micah Piippo and Greg Lawton ask a simple question: How do we fix the architecture behind our schedules? Their mission, turn disorder into a streamlined system any scheduling team can run.
Key Takeaways
Think in three buckets. Architecture lives in scheduling tools, communication channels, and data integration. Nail all three or bottlenecks appear.
Code smart, not hard. Balanced activity coding clear enough for reporting yet flexible for change beats either code-free anarchy or code-heavy paralysis.
Version control is non-negotiable. Lock each update on a regular cadence; “live” data invites errors and finger pointing.
Formal vs. informal comms matter. Record and archive formal reports; keep informal chats lightweight. Design systems for both.
AI is coming for the reporting grind. Expect agents to draft narratives and answer routine schedule questions, freeing planners to focus on strategy.
Tactical Takeaway
Automate your first mile of reporting. Instead of trying to automate the entire system, start by identifying the one manual task that’s repeated the most usually exporting the latest schedule from P6 and uploading it somewhere. Create a basic script or macro that does just that: pulls the latest approved file, renames it with a timestamp, and drops it into a shared folder or database location. That single automation eliminates missed uploads, reduces confusion, and creates a consistent anchor point for every downstream report. One small fix, wide impact.
Listen on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.
