5.3. Make Ready Planning

Make-Ready-Planning is the process of screening the work that can start or finish within a short time frame in the future called the lookahead horizon to ensure that it is ready to start. The goals for the screening review are:

Identify any missing tasks or constraints that prevent the tasks in the lookahead from starting.
Review that resources are available to start those tasks.
Review that the handoffs between those tasks are properly planned and that they are clear. Split tasks with unclear handoffs.
Review and replan any late paths or accelerate work that is on a late path.

The Make-Ready-Planning should be done at least weekly. Depending on the issues and the type of work being planned, you may choose to schedule the lookahead review with the entire team or with select members of the team while encouraging each participant to review their lookahead tasks ahead of time.

The stability of the lookahead is key to ensuring reliable execution and if the process is done correctly 100% of the tasks anticipated by the lookahead would be ready to start each week resulting in much higher chances that work will start as planned and will finish as planned.

	If your commitment meetings are long and unorganized the cause is usually in the team's failure to properly implement the make ready process.

In vPlanner you can review a lookahead either in the Gantt View or in the Manage View and you access the lookahead tools in either case from the Lookahead Ribbon. You should first select one of those working views, then switch to the lookahead ribbon to apply the lookahead.

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LPS Screening Rule: vPlanner applies the LPS screening rule automatically; meaning that only the tasks that CAN start or finish within the lookahead horizon are allowed to be on the lookahead. If the plan has late paths, not all the tasks that should start or finish within the lookahead horizon will be included in the lookahead.

Finding Your Lookahead Tasks

As a user, you can isolate the lookahead tasks for your company by clicking on the Manage or Gantt views.

Select the Lookahead Menu.
Select a Team from the Teams drop down or Use a Custom Filter.
Select My Tasks, or My Company Tasks to see just those tasks or Click Any Task so that you can see all the tasks for the Team or the Custom Filter.

The numbers identifying the priority for the tasks are updated. Click the number buttons to see the tasks that match the priority search. vPlanner will then display the lookahead tasks on a weekly calendar.

Figure 40 – Finding your Company's Tasks for Make Ready Planning

Example Lookahead Views


Lookahead in Manage View	Lookahead in Gantt View

Table 3 – Example Lookahead Views

Webinar Recording on Lookahead Planning

The below short video illustrates the lookahead process.

https://vimeo.com/1058647001

The Lookahead Ribbon Tools

5.3. Make Ready Planning — Figure 41 – The Lookahead Ribbon

Print Preview

Sends the lookahead tasks to the appropriate print preview panel for the active view.

Lookahead Filters

You can use the filters to control which tasks to show in as part of the lookahead.

Tier 1 Filters
Team: select a team from the pull down to make that the active team.
Custom: open the task filter so you can create a very customized search through the plan.
Tier 2 Filters are applied after to the result of the Tier 1 Filters.
My Tasks: Only tasks assigned to you will be shown in the Kanban View.
My Company: Only tasks assigned to your company will be shown in the view.
Any Task: Will show all the tasks found in the Tier 1 filters.

Lookahead Horizon

A lookahead is a time-bound search through the plan that defines the work that can start or finish within the lookahead horizon.

vPlanner has a default value of 6 weeks for the lookahead horizon. However, you can use the calendar pull down to select any date as the cut off date for your lookahead search. Once the lookahead horizon is set or a filter is applied vPlanner will calculate the tasks and will show the results in the number buttons to the right. Clicking on any of the numbers will show the results in your active view.

	The Manage View and Gantt View are the only two views compatible with the Lookahead.

Apply the Lookahead Results

If you press a button in this view, the lookahead results that mach will be shown in the Active View. You can hover over any of the buttons in vPlanner for a short explanation.

Lookahead Tasks: are all the tasks that can start or finish within the lookahead horizon and the active filter.

Required (Can): are the tasks that can start or finish within the lookahead horizon and the active filter from the required tasks.

Backlog (Can): are the tasks that can start or finish within the lookahead horizon and the active filter from the backlog tasks. Backlog tasks will not have an impact on the target milestones.

Running Late: will show the tasks that are running late within the lookahead horizon and the active filter.

Workplan (Will): identifies the tasks that are promised from the tasks that are within the lookahead.

Required (Will): identifies the required tasks that are promised from the tasks that are within the lookahead.

Required (Should): identifies the tasks that should start or finish within the lookahead horizon and the active filter. If the Required Should count is more than the Required Can part, then the plan has late paths and you should schedule re-planning work sessions with the team to recover time and accelerate the work.

Zoom tools

Will apply to the Manage view when active.

Task Editing Tools

You can edit selected tasks in the Active View. See Task Editing in the Common Tools section.

Task Status Tools

You can status selected tasks in the Active View. See Task Status Tools in the Common Tools section.

Swimlane Layouts

When applying a lookhead vPlanner will automatically activate a weekly swimlane and will use a default left-to-right arrangement. You can override this using the Swimlanes composer in the Lookahead ribbon.

Window Management

You can use those buttons to show or hide the Focused View or the Task Editor Panel.