Episode 2: Ctrl +C, Ctrl +Blame

“How one schedule mistake spanned two projects.”

🏧 Scene: A Frustrated Call

The call came from the school project manager. His voice was tense.
“Half our classrooms aren’t ready. The contractors say it’s a scheduling issue.”

I opened the file he sent: “School Renovation Baseline V3 (Final).mpp.”
But as I scanned the tasks, something felt familiar.

I’d seen this structure before—same phases, same task names, even the same durations. That’s when I realized: this wasn’t a fresh plan. It was a direct copy of another project I worked on—a hospital renovation.

🧹 The Red Flags

This wasn’t just a scheduling issue. It was a classic copy-paste catastrophe.

In the rush to kick off the school project, someone thought it would be “efficient” to reuse the hospital renovation schedule. After all, both were “renovations,” right?

But that was where the similarities ended.

• A hospital has infection control, medical equipment installation, and phased ward handovers.
• A school has phased classroom completions, playground upgrades, and a summer timeline.

Yet the schedule still had tasks like “Sterilize Operating Room” and “MRI Equipment Installation”—in a school project.

Dependencies were misaligned too. Classrooms were supposed to be done first, but the schedule had them starting in parallel with the library—because that’s how hospital wards were done.

🗱️ What Went Wrong?

The real problem wasn’t just the copy-paste. It was the lack of review.

• No one checked if the tasks matched the school’s scope.
• No one validated the logic.
• No one verified the milestones.

The school renovation was being built from a hospital’s blueprint, and it was a disaster.

⏳ The Fallout

• Classroom completion was delayed by three weeks.
• Contractors were paid for idle time while waiting for access.
• Senior management questioned why “sterilization” tasks appeared in a school project schedule.
• The project manager lost credibility with the client.

On paper, it was a school renovation. In reality, it was a haunted hospital schedule.

📌 The Lesson

Copying a schedule doesn’t save time if it brings hidden risks.
A schedule is more than a list of tasks—it’s a map of your project’s reality.

✅ Pro Tips for Schedulers:

🔍 Always validate the scope: A classroom is not an operating room. Different projects, different priorities.

🧼 Rework the logic: Just because two tasks were linked in a previous project doesn’t mean they should be here.

🗖️ Verify milestones: Ensure that phase completions align with what the client expects.

🫠 Simplify and clean: Delete irrelevant tasks immediately—don’t assume you’ll “fix it later.”

📝 Document reused sections: If you must reuse, clearly document which parts were copied and how they were adjusted.

🔹 Quote Board

“A schedule is a map of your project. Copying someone else’s map will only get you lost.” — The Scheduler

“What saves time in planning can waste months on site.” — Senior Project Manager

📖 Coming Up Next:

🔎 Episode 3: The Missing Milestone

“A project that finished “on time,” but nothing was complete.”