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What you need to know

Friday decides Monday. Before you close the week, compare the week that ended to the plan, then build the week that starts. The comparison runs first, because what it finds becomes next week's priorities.

Progress is a comparison. Module 5 already wrote the four lines you compare against, so most weeks the review is a lookup and it takes minutes.

Every gap and every Friday answer becomes a PM Plan entry with 7 fields and a time on the calendar. Anything with no time on it is still an intention.

The Friday routine. The Project Manager owns all 5 steps, every Friday. Steps 1 and 2 look back at the plan. Steps 3, 4 and 5 build the week that follows.

What to do

Seven moves. These are the ones that decide whether the week holds.

What to do

Block 30 minutes every Friday before you close the week. The review and next week's plan both happen there, in that order.
State the planned condition on all four lines before you look at the actuals. Work, time, effort, fee earned. The plan already holds every answer.
Write the difference down for each line, in one sentence, even when it is zero. The written record is what makes the check work.
Route every gap the same way. No gap, move on. A gap you can close, Priority next week. Beyond your authority, escalate now.
Ask the four Friday questions and decide what you will do about each answer. A list you close without a decision changes nothing.
Fill all 7 fields for every Priority. An empty field means the plan is not finished, and that field is usually where the problem starts.
Put every Date and time on the calendar before Friday ends, including the follow ups other people owe you.

What to watch out for

Seven signals. Each one is visible on a Friday, and each one costs more the longer it sits.

What to watch out for

An answer of “going well” you cannot trace to a line on the plan. That answer came from the inbox.
A line you cannot state a planned condition for. That is a plan gap, and it is the finding.
A package whose hours climb one timesheet at a time with nobody deciding it.
A finished package you have not seen as a document. Being told it is done tells you what someone intends.
A Priority carried 2 Fridays in a row with the Date and time field still empty.
A decision that belongs to someone else and has no confirmed owner and date.
A change nobody wrote into the schedule, the Decision Log or the risk tracking. It exists in one person's memory until then.

What to avoid

Starting Monday with the inbox open and no plan written. The inbox will set your priorities for you.
Treating the project schedule as your plan. It belongs to the project. The PM Plan belongs to you.
Making a list on Friday and closing it without deciding anything.
Escalating every gap. Escalation is for gaps beyond your authority, and it costs credibility when it is used for the rest.
Waiting for the milestone to find out whether the work behind it is on track.
Investigating every line every week. If a line takes an investigation, fix the plan.
Absorbing new work without deciding what it replaces.

The four Friday questions

Ask them in this order, about the project, before you build anything. Each one tends to surface a different horizon.

Ask	What it usually surfaces
What matters most?	Next week. The item that cannot slip without costing something.
Who needs something from me?	Next week. People are already waiting, and they are quiet about it.
What should already be underway?	The next several weeks. Long lead items, consultant deliverables, client decisions.
What am I avoiding?	The next milestone. The unresolved thing that gets expensive on its own schedule.

The three horizons

Scan all 3 every Friday. Most weeks the first fills and the other 2 hold 1 or 2 items each.

Horizon	The question it asks	Oakhaven, week 8
Next week	What has to move, and who is waiting on me?	Elevations has to start Monday. The hours conversation cannot slip.
The next several weeks	What needs attention now because it has lead time?	Karen Whitfield's City Council briefing, 3 weeks out.
The next milestone	What has to be true before the project gets there?	The owner furnished dispatch system is still unresolved.

The 7 fields

One entry per Priority. All 7, or the plan is not finished.

Field	The question	Oakhaven example	The test
Priority	What matters next?	Elevations has not started and sits on the critical path.	Could somebody else read it and know what it is?
PM Action	What do I personally need to do?	Get elevations under way and settle the hours in the same conversation.	Is it an action you take, not one you hope for?
People	Who needs to be involved?	The architect of record and the elevations lead.	Are these names, not disciplines?
Date and time	When will I address it?	Monday 8:30, 30 minutes.	Is it on the calendar, with a clock time?
Communication	Who needs to know, and through what channel?	Marcus Webb, email, Monday afternoon.	Is the channel one they actually read?
Project Control	Where will the outcome live?	The schedule. Resequenced dates go in the same day.	Decision Log, risk tracking, or schedule?
Closure	How will I know it is closed?	Elevations is under way and week 11 has not moved.	Is it something you can see, not something you assume?

A priority with no time assigned to it is still an intention.

The four lines

The plan wrote these at the start of the phase. Every week you put actual beside planned and name the difference.

Line	The question the plan answers	Where it lives	What must be true to prove it
Work	Which packages should be done, and which active?	Work Breakdown Structure and schedule	The finished package exists as a document and you have seen it.
Time	Where should the work sit against the milestone and the critical path?	Schedule	Every active package sits where the schedule says.
Effort	Whose hours should have gone in, and how many?	Budget and resource plan	Hours spent match what the budget planned for work completed.
Fee earned	How much fee should the completed work have earned?	The effort curve	Fee earned by completed work tracks the curve.

What the plan says · What is true · The difference

What to have open on Friday

Five documents, all of them built before this phase started. The review is a lookup when they are current.

Open this	Read this out of it
The schedule	Planned dates for every active package, the critical path, and the next milestone.
The Work Breakdown Structure	Which packages should be closed by now, and which should be running.
The budget and resource plan	Planned hours for the work completed, by package and by person.
The effort curve	Fee the completed work should have earned by the end of this week.
Last week's PM Plan	What moved, what did not, and what changed. Start the review here.

If one of these takes more than a minute to read, that is a planning problem, and it will cost you again next Friday.

Route every gap

Three branches, and every outcome lands in the project controls.

No gap. Move on. That is most lines in most weeks.

A gap you can close. Priority on next week's PM Plan, all 7 fields.

Beyond your authority. Escalate now, while somebody can still act.

What the outcome is	Where it lands
A date moved, or work resequenced	The schedule
A decision made, by you or by the client	The Decision Log
A new exposure, or one that grew	The risk tracking
A commitment the client made or received	The client commitment record

What a gap costs

Same gap, same project, 4 weeks apart. Early discovery buys options, and the options expire.

Found	The elevations package is late	What you can still do
Week 7	Costs a Monday conversation with the team.	Resequence the work, add a person, or take the client a recommendation.
Week 11	Costs another person, or overtime, or both.	Absorb it, or tell the client after the fact.

Review it. Route it. Scan it. Fill it. Schedule it.