When one project has more than one plan
7 October 2026
Integrated planning starts when the dates already disagree. Name the master file, and what each party must supply.
Most jobs start with one schedule. The trouble starts when engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning each keep their own, or when the owner and the contractor are both treating their file as the programme.
That is not a reason to buy a larger model. It is a reason to find out where the dates already disagree.
A short fact-find comes first. Who plans. Which file they plan in. How often they update. Which dates do not match. If the dates match, you do not need a second rung. If they do not, name one file as master and write down what each party must supply, and by when.
Then build or tidy that master, and sit in the update cycle for an agreed number of periods. Workshops are part of the job. Emailing a .xer and hoping the other plans follow is not.
Leave a procedure, and a person on the job who has been using it. The point is one progress story, not a system that tries to hold scope, cost, risk, and contracts for their own sake.
We do not offer this in a first meeting by default. It follows a schedule that has already shown the other plans do not match.