MANAGING RISK OF DELAY – Managing Contractor Schedules (Part 13)

This McLaughlin & McLaughlin post is the thirteenth (13th) in a series  of discussions regarding various aspects of time management as it relates to the risk of delay.  This post addresses managerial considerations for dealing with schedules prepared by contractors and submitted to owners or their agents (construction managers, managing contractors, advisors, etc.).

Recently, Mr. Chris Carson authored an excellent article titledDealing with Contractors Schedules That Cannot be Approved.  This fine article was published in COST Engineering(September/October 2013).

This article contains excellent advice for project teams regarding schedule management.

Mr. Carson’s article is, in reality two articles in one.  While Mr. Carson’s article presents a methodology for problematic situations (which he calls DSAB), the preamble and initial discussion for this article is highly useful and applicable to project management teams as they address the frontend of project planning and execution.  This post summarizes the sage advice provided by Mr. Carson regarding frontend project management challenges as they relate to scheduling and time management. [Read more…]

Contract Notice and Recognition (Part 2)

LinkedIn Group: Contract Risk Management — Construction Industry Discussion: Methods of Ensuring Compliance

This recent Discussion was initiated by me, George McLaughlin. I posed the following question:

What methods or procedures are most effective to ensure compliance with contract Notice requirements (if any)?

Most contracts contain Notice requirements of various sorts. Notice regarding variations / changed work can be reasonably straightforward. Notice regarding delay (by others) and disruption (by others) can be considerably more challenging. Of course, the challenges include form or method of notice as well as the onset of recognition of the delay or disruption. Another complication is the acceptability of constructive notice under applicable law. Please present some views on this topic. [Read more…]