On construction projects, schedule delay claims that affect the project completion date are becoming an everyday event. Those are the delays beyond the contractor’s control, and the circumstances that entitle the contractor to delay claims are usually specified in a contract provision. For example, in the FIDIC Red Book, those include the clauses of Ambiguities (5.2), Engineering Drawings Delays (6.2 and 6.3), Physical Conditions (12.2), Fossils, Antiquities, Structures (27.1), Tests (36.5), Suspension (40.2), Employer’s Failure to Give Possession (42.2) and Defaults by Employer (69).
Several after-the-fact delay analysis methods can be used to prove the contractor’s entitlement to the delay. Those include As-Planned Vs. As-Built, Impacted As-Planned. Collapsed As-Planned, Window Analysis, and Time Impact Analysis. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. It is usually driven by the quality and availability of baseline schedule, schedule delays, progress and project documents, and the effort to spend on the delay analysis, among others. Regardless of the selected delay analysis method, the team carrying out the delay analysis needs access to the as-planned schedule, final as-built CPM schedule with periodic updates, Project daily reports, meeting minutes, and other project records related to the different schedule delay and disruption events.
The as-planned schedule, final as-built CPM schedule, all periodic updates, and schedule delays analysis needed for the Window Analysis and Time Impact Analysis (TIA) methods will usually be completed using Primavera P6 software.
For keeping track of all schedule versions, revisions, and periodical updates used to analyze delays, it is highly recommended that all documents and records used in preparing schedules are adequately documented and associated with their relevant schedule. Using a Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb can prove to be of great value even if PMWeb was not used to generate and capture project records and documents during the project’s execution life cycle.
Every single Primavera P6 schedule that will be used in the delay analysis will be imported into the PMWeb scheduling module. This will provide the delay analysis team with immediate visibility into all the schedules that could be used in the delay analysis. PMWeb will import all needed information for the delay analysis, such as the activity number, description, planned and actual start and finish dates, planned, remaining and actual duration, percent complete, total float, and WBS level.
The notes tab enables the delay analysis team to capture all comments and text notes on the imported project schedule. Those date-stamped notes will identify the PMWeb user who created the note and the PMWeb user who could have edited this note and when. Since PMWeb allows adding content in rich text, pictures and other images can be embedded in the text note.
The attachment tab will be used for each imported project schedule to attach all relevant documents, usually uploaded and stored in the PMWeb document management repository. However, it is possible to upload documents directly. PMWeb document management repository will be configured to include folders for each schedule version, revision, or periodical update. This will ensure that all those documents are correctly filed to enable the delay analysis team and the claim preparation team to review and analyze those documents when needed. In addition, PMWeb allows linking imported MS Outlook emails and other records created in PMWeb to the schedule.
To ensure that all those schedule versions, revisions, or periodical updates are formally approved to be used in the delay analysis, a workflow can be assigned to formalize the review and approval process for those schedules. This will ensure that only approved schedules are used in the delay analysis.
The schedule data captured in PMWeb will become available for the delay analysis team to report in any desired tabular and graphical format, including bar charts. For example, a report can be created to compare schedule versions and calculate the start and finish days, duration, and total float variances. Those reports can be saved as PDF files and MS Excel file formats.
Should there be a need to share those reports with other project team members, whether they have access to PMWeb or not, the PMWeb notification tab will be used to send emails to those team members, including the selected reports as attachments. PMWeb will keep a register of all notifications sent for each project schedule.
In addition, the PMWeb custom form builder will create forms to capture the data details of all delay events and time impact analysis. Those will be the records that the delay analysis team might find necessary to ensure that their analysis is well-structured, complete, and formally reviewed and approved. The design of those forms could also include fields for specifying the project schedule activity and project schedule WBS level that is relevant to the content of the form. The project schedule activities list and WBS levels list will automatically become available when the Primavera P6 schedule is imported. In addition, the forms could include many other fields for which the values will be selected from another predefined list of values to ensure standardization and consistency and ease the process of completing those forms.
Similar to all other PMWeb records, documents can be attached to those forms, links to other PMWeb records, and imported MS Outlook emails can be created. Of course, a workflow can be assigned to each on one of those forms to ensure that they have been formally submitted, reviewed, and approved by their intended project team recipients.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM, is a Senior Project Management Consultant with over 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 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 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 over six 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, DC, USA, Bachelor’s 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.