Construction claims in capital projects are on the rise and they need to be managed like many other project management processes. Project owners need to have a formal and documented process for managing, monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on the status of all claim submissions made by contractors.
Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) like PMWeb will be used to support the claims management requirement. PMWeb custom form builder will be used to create the claim submission form which will have the fields to capture the claim cause and effect, details of the contractor’s entitlement for additional time and/or money, FIDIC contract clause that the contractors have based on the entitlement on, checkboxes if the claim is considered to be for works that are out of the project scope of work, if it has cost impact and if it has schedule impact along with the project schedule activity that will be the first to be impacted by the submitted claim. The form will also have a field to capture the proposed counterclaim response. In addition, the form will have a table to capture the different time extensions and financial compensation proposed to settle the claim. For each proposal, there will be an ID, when it was proposed, a brief description of the proposal, proposed time extension and adjusted project completion date, financial compensation, and status of the proposal whether it was approved or rejected.
The form attachment tab will be used to attach the project documents and records that are related to each claim topic and the counterclaim response. Those documents will be uploaded and stored on the PMWeb document management repository. In addition, links to relevant PMWeb records and imported MS Outlook emails will be also included in the attachment tab.
As there could be different members in the project owner’s claim management team that could be located at different locations and have different responsibilities in the counterclaim response, the workflow module will be used to map the steps for submitting the topic of the claim, prepare the entitlement recommendation, and the final response. The workflow could include branches to align the workflow with the set authority approval levels. The workflow will also identify who has the authority for approving the final counterclaim response.
The information captured in the Construction Claim Form will become available for the claim management team to present in any desired form and format. The report could identify the reasons for those claims, which claims were due to additional scope of work, which claims have time and cost impact, claim cause and effect statement, claim entitlement and proposed counterclaim response, which activity does the claim impact, the amount claimed by the contractor and the amount assessed by the counterclaim among many others.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with more than 35-year service record providing project management and controls services to over 100 projects with a total value of over US $5 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education, and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, Telecommunication, and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training, and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker on topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management, and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 35 years, he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America. He has written more than 250 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), an Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE), and a Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Master’s in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – from Kuwait University, Kuwait, and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA, and London Business School, London, UK.