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The Death of P6: Why a $600M Contractor is Ditching Traditional Scheduling Software
Owen Drury
June 04, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes
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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
The Death of P6: Why a $600M Contractor is Ditching Traditional Scheduling Software
I've been using Primavera P6 for years. And I'm done with it.
That's the blunt assessment from Patrick Hennessy, Planning and Analytics Executive at Harkins Builders, a $600 million general contractor. After spending over seven years implementing technology across every department at Harkins, Patrick has reached a breaking point with traditional scheduling software.
"It has got to get to a place where it's a cloud-based collaborative solution," Patrick tells me during our recent conversation. "How disjointed is it when you have a lead superintendent and a group of superintendents trying to work their portions of the schedule, and this is all trying to be done through PDF or sticky notes?"
Sticky notes. In 2025. At a half-billion-dollar construction company.
TL;DR: The Death of P6 — Why Contractors Are Ditching Old Scheduling Tools
We sat down with a $600M GC — here’s why the future of construction scheduling is changing fast:
👉 Swipe-right updates: Fast, gamified progress tracking
📱 Mobile-first UX: Built for field teams, not back-office schedulers
🛠️ Real-time collaboration: No more F5 refreshes or monthly scrambles
🌐 Full integration: Daily logs, RFIs, weather, and trade data all in one place
🧠 Seamless data capture: AI and reality capture update schedules automatically
The Monthly Scheduling Charade
Here's what traditional scheduling looks like at most contractors, according to Patrick:
"You go out there and spend hours collecting dates. You plug them into P6, hit schedule now, see what happened to the end date, make your logic changes. You produce reports, send them out, and wait until next month."
The problem? Those dates probably haven't been thought about or written down in a month.
"We encourage teams to write down dates daily," Patrick admits. "But in reality, when the scheduler's coming, that's when people scramble to write their dates down."
Sound familiar?
This once-a-month ritual creates a fundamental disconnect between the field and the schedule. While superintendents are making dozens of micro-decisions daily that affect the timeline, those insights disappear into the ether until the next formal update cycle.
What Startups Are Building Instead
Patrick is currently evaluating multiple cloud-based scheduling solutions. While he won't name names (we don't take commission), he's seeing several promising approaches:
Real-time collaboration: Instead of remote P6 servers where you "always have to press F5 to get other people's changes," these new platforms allow simultaneous editing with immediate updates.
Field-friendly interfaces: Traditional scheduling software "is just not that easy to use if you're a lifelong field person." The new generation prioritizes user experience over feature complexity.
Integrated data collection: Some companies are using reality capture with AI to automatically update schedules based on visual progress. Others are streamlining the data input process entirely.
But Patrick sees an even bigger opportunity…
The "Swipe Right" Solution - Ha!
During our conversation, Patrick painted a picture of what scheduling could become:
"Make it like a swipe left or swipe right. Did this happen on these dates? Yes? That's a right swipe. No? Swipe left. Maybe 50 swipes while a superintendent is sitting in bed ready to go to sleep."
The next morning, they'd review the five "no's," make quick adjustments, and automatically generate a schedule update.
"You could offer five cents every swipe," I suggested, getting excited about the gamification potential. "Really incentivize participation."
"Once you create that brain sensation of gaming or competition," Patrick agreed, "that's where you really start to win over users."
The Integration Challenge
But Patrick's vision goes beyond just making scheduling software prettier. He wants "a living, breathing, everyone's collaborating together at all times tool."
The key is data integration. Modern scheduling platforms need to connect with:
Daily logs and field reports
Submittal and RFI workflows
Weather data and site conditions
Trade partner performance history
"If you can collect all that data and analyze it with AI," Patrick explains, "you should be able to make informed decisions about what probably happened. Then it becomes a simple yes/no confirmation rather than starting from scratch each time."
Why This Matters for Contractors
Patrick's frustration represents a broader shift happening across the industry. The companies that figure out real-time scheduling collaboration will have a massive competitive advantage.
Consider the ripple effects:
Better trade coordination: Real-time updates mean subcontractors actually know when they're needed
Reduced delays: Issues get flagged immediately instead of discovered weeks later
Improved cash flow: More accurate schedules lead to better billing and payment timing
Enhanced safety: Proper sequencing reduces conflicts and hazardous conditions
What This Means for Startups
If you're building scheduling software, Patrick's comments reveal several critical requirements:
Start with collaboration, not features: The platform needs to work for both scheduling professionals and field teams simultaneously.
Simplify data collection: The biggest dysfunction in current workflows is gathering accurate information. Solve this, and you own the market.
Build for mobile: Superintendents won't carry laptops to check schedules. The primary interface needs to work on phones.
Focus on adoption: The best scheduling software is worthless if only one person uses it. Design for viral internal adoption.
The Bigger Picture
Patrick's criticism of P6 isn't just about software frustration. It's about an industry ready for fundamental change.
"We're seeing different trains of thought coming out of companies for how to solve this problem," he observes. "Everyone's got a different approach, and we're happy to test all of them simultaneously."
Harkins is actively piloting multiple solutions, collecting feedback, and preparing to make a long-term decision. They're not alone. Across the industry, contractors are questioning whether their current scheduling tools are fit for purpose.
The companies that crack this code won't just win software contracts. They'll become the backbone of how construction gets planned, coordinated, and executed.
And for contractors still pressing F5 to see schedule updates? The revolution can't come soon enough.
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