Computerizing ICBF Method for Schedule Delay Analysis

Schedule delay is a common construction dispute. For analyzing schedule delays, a previous study had proposed an academic analysis method, the “isolated collapsed but-for” (ICBF) method. However, because many construction projects involve numerous complex activities, the procedure of using the ICBF method for schedule delay analysis is time-consuming. Therefore, this study used Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language and spreadsheet techniques to develop an Excel-based program for rapid delay analysis rather than manual calculation. A case study confirmed that the program automatically produces analytical results with only common delay documents (as-planned and as-built schedules and identified delay events). Compared with previous studies, schedule analysts can obtain analysis results quickly and correctly. Research results provide not only a convenient tool for schedule delay analysis but also a guide to computerize various academic delay analysis methods in the future.     

Modified But-For Method for Delay Analysis

“But-for” is a widely used method for analyzing and apportioning project delays among the responsible parties. Despite its acceptability, the traditional but-for method suffers from serious drawbacks; namely its narrow focus on the point of view of a single party and its inability to accurately consider concurrent delays. In this technical note, several improvements have been made to the but-for method to produce repeatable results and to account for concurrent delays. Details of the modified but-for (MBF) method are provided along with an example to demonstrate its advantages. To automate the MBF method, it has been coded in a macro program on commercial project management software. The method is simple and can help practitioners in apportioning project delays in an accurate and equitable manner.     

Delay Analysis within Construction Contracting Organizations

Delayed completion of a construction project is often caused by a complex interaction of a combination of events, some of which are the contractor’s risks and others are the project owner’s. The apportionment of the liability to give effect to the risk allocation has therefore been a matter of great controversy. Many delay analysis methodologies have been developed over the years for performing this task. This paper reports on an empirical study into the current practice in the use of these methodologies in the United Kingdom, as part of a wider study aimed at developing a framework for improving delay claims analysis. The part of the study reported here was based on a questionnaire survey of key informants. The issues investigated include the categories of staff within contracting organizations who contribute to delay claims analyses, the awareness, use and reliability of existing delay analysis methods and the obstacles to their use in practice. The main findings of the study are that: (1) the preparation of delay claims often requires input from commercial managers (quantity surveyors), schedulers, site managers, external claim consultants and estimators; (2) commercial managers have the greatest involvement; (3) claims analyzed using the as-built versus as-planned and the impacted as-planned techniques are often successful although there is considerable literature on the shortcomings of these techniques; and (4) the main obstacles to the use of the methods relates to deficiencies in project records and scheduling practice.     

Delay Analysis Method Using Delay Section

The most common cause of construction claims is delay. Moreover, delay claims are often extremely complex and difficult to resolve. For this reason, the construction industry requires an effective and reliable method for analyzing the causes and effects of construction delay. Presently, the methods of analysis in common use do not adequately account for several commonly encountered situations. As a result, project time extensions are often considered without rigorous analysis. Therefore the objective of this study is to propose and describe an effective and logical method for evaluating construction delays that adequately accounts for commonly encountered situations. To achieve this objective, the writers propose a new methodology called “delay analysis method using delay section” (DAMUDS) as a means of overcoming two limitations of existing methods: (1) inadequate accounting of concurrent delay and (2) inadequate accounting of time-shortened activities. The DAMUDS method builds upon the widely used method of contemporaneous period analysis. The writers’ points are illustrated through the use of an example case.     

Avoiding and Mitigating Delay and Disruption Claims Conflict: Role of Precontract Negotiation

Delay and disruption claims often generate conflict and contract dispute in the delivery of building and civil engineering projects. If construction delay claims conflict can be avoided or mitigated, there could be substantial financial savings on projects. This study explores the effect of precontract negotiation as a means of avoiding or mitigating delay and disruption claims conflict. The data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire administered face to face on 41 contractors’ personnel on 41 completed projects in Singapore. The data were analyzed using structural modeling with partial least squares estimation approach. The results indicate that when the contractors received an unfavorable outcome from the contract administrator’s decision on their claims for delay, the intensity of conflict was lower when there was precontract negotiation and precontract agreement regarding the rules for quantifying and assessing the impact of anticipated delays than when there was none. It was also discovered that the higher the level of precontract negotiation and precontract agreement on the rules for quantifying and assessing delays, the higher the contractors perceived the quality of the decision-making process for delay claims during the construction phase. Further, the higher the contractors perceived the quality of the decision-making process for delay claims, the lower the intensity of conflict. At the time of entering into contracts, owners and their project management team need to pay more attention to precontract negotiation and agreement with their contractor to clarify and agree on the rules for quantifying and assessing the impact of anticipated delay and disruption. Aspects that require precontract negotiation, agreement, and clarification include: the rules of evidence for claims, the record requirements for claims and the procedure for keeping the records, form of construction program including the software for the preparation of the program and the procedure updating the program, the methodology for analyzing delay claims, formula for quantifying unabsorbed head office overhead component of prolongation cost, the method for quantifying disruption cost, the handling of concurrent delays, profit—whether claimable and the rate of profit to be paid, acceleration—circumstances under which it will be compensated and basis of compensation, and the question of who owns the float. These are, typically, not adequately covered by most standard forms of contracts. The agreements on these matters may be incorporated as part of partnering agreement or as a supplement to the contract agreement. Precontract negotiation, clarity, and agreements could produce instrumental and noninstrumental (social psychological) effects, which could facilitate delay and disruption claims assessment and their resolution. It could mitigate conflict even when the outcomes are unfavorable to a party.     

Schedule Analysis under the Effect of Resource Allocation

The construction industry has employed various schedule analysis techniques to support delay claims. Paradoxically, resource-related issues are frequently ignored even though they can affect project completion time, too. The research presented here shows that delay analysis without resource allocation practice substantially affects results of schedule analysis. Some delay can cause unrealistic resource allocation in downstream work, which in turn may further delay the project. The effect of resource allocation can either add to or reduce the severity of some delaying event. Apportionment of delay responsibility may be inaccurate unless resource allocation practice is considered in the analysis. Practical and necessary steps are proposed to enhance the existing window analysis technique. A case study is presented to compare the enhanced window analysis with the existing window analysis. This research enables practitioners to make delay analyses and claims more practical and reliable. Further studies are needed to improve the usability, credibility, and acceptability of schedule analysis considering resource allocation.     

Daily Windows Delay Analysis

Critical path method delay analysis techniques are widely applied in the construction industry, with the windows method being regarded as technologically advantageous. The approach looks at different schedule snapshots (windows) throughout the project and analyzes the contractor versus owner responsibility for delaying the critical paths. Accordingly, decisions regarding time and/or cost compensation could be made. While the technique is beneficial, it is computationally intensive and produces different results with different window sizes. Commercial software provide little support in this regard and the analysis is usually done manually. In this paper, a modified windows approach is introduced with computerized daily analysis of delays so that accurate and repeatable results are produced. The new approach is coupled with a new representation of progress information and is readily usable by professionals and researchers to evaluate project delays. Details of the daily analysis are introduced along with two case studies that demonstrate its advantages over the traditional windows approach. A downloadable version is made available for experimental use by researchers and professionals.     

Assessing the New United Kingdom Protocol for Dealing with Delay and Disruption

The recent publication of the U.K. Society of Construction Law’s protocol for dealing with delay claims has finally provided a good opportunity to make progress with a continuing difficulty that besets most substantial construction projects. The protocol makes recommendations on the issues that arise when delay claims must be managed. A report of recent research is conducted to test how U.K. professionals understand some of these issues and how they deal with them in practice. The conclusions show some areas of good agreement, notably in the way that early completion should be handled and the way that prolongation costs should be assessed. There are, however, areas that give rise to some concern. The methodology “time impact analysis” appears not to be well used in practice, and it also seems that contractors will have difficulty with the position taken on float ownership and concurrent delays.     

Delay Analysis under Multiple Baseline Updates

Windows delay analysis has been recognized as one of the most credible techniques for analyzing construction delays. To overcome some of the drawbacks of windows delay analysis, this paper introduces improvements to a computerized schedule analysis model so that it will produce accurate and repeatable results. The model considers multiple baseline updates due to changes in the durations of the activities and the logical relationships among them, as well as the impact of resource overallocation. The model uses a daily window size in order to consider all fluctuations in the critical path(s) and uses a legible representation of progress information to accurately apportion delays and accelerations among project parties. A simple case study has been implemented to demonstrate the accuracy and usefulness of the proposed delay analysis model. This research is useful for both researchers and practitioners and allows detailed and repeatable analysis of the progress of a construction project in order to facilitate corrective actions and claim analysis.     

Contractual Approach for Facilitating the Resolution of Dispute over a Contractor’s Failure to Comply with Time Limit for Notice of Delays

The enforcement of a contractor’s notice of delays and claims as “a condition precedent” to a contractor’s claims is a controversial issue among practitioners, researchers, and legal scholars. Strict enforcement or liberal interpretations (no enforcement) of time limit for a contractor’s notice have some implications for the success of projects and for the construction industry. This paper examines and compares the different views regarding enforceability of notice provisions. The paper evaluates those views and thereafter proposes an alternative contractual approach for dealing with a contractor’s noncompliance with the provision. The applicability of the proposed approach is evaluated vis-à-vis legal principles. The proposed approach appears to be practical and equitable. It could facilitate early resolution of disputes relating to notice. It could also make the outcome of notice-related dispute more predictable. Considering the contractual, legal, and practical problems that could arise from a strict enforcement and a liberal interpretation (no enforcement) of time limit for a contractor’s notice, the paper highlights the benefits of the proposed approach to the employers (project owners), contractors, and the construction industry at large.     

Analysis Methods in Time-Based Claims

Assessing the impact of delay and resolving disputes are contentious issues since courts and administrative boards do not specify standard delay analysis practices. First, the advantages and disadvantages of widely used delay analysis methods, including the as-planned versus as-built, impact as-planned, collapsed as-built, time impact, and productivity analysis methods are summarized. Fifty-eight claim cases associated with time-based disputes in government work during the 1992–2005 period are extracted and analyzed to observe issues in time-based claims, including the reasons why they occur and the common practices in their resolution. The effects of various factors on the selection of a delay analysis method are examined. These factors include the type of schedule used, the schedule updating practice, the use of existing versus newly created schedules, and the availability of expertise, information, time, and funds. A project management system that makes use of regularly updated network schedules, and that maintains adequate project records should allow a scheduling expert to select a delay analysis method that would make a claim quite convincing.     

Analysis of Adverse Weather for Excusable Delays

Severe weather conditions can be disruptive to construction. Contractors typically obtain time extensions for weather days beyond normal conditions. However, contracting parties often dispute the extent of weather-related time extensions. Typical industry contracts may overlook many important points that can provide an acceptable resolution. This paper classifies seven factors causing discrepancies in analysis of adverse weather for time extensions; namely, the definition of normal weather, weather thresholds, type of work, lingering days, criteria for lost days, lost days equivalent due to lost productivity, and work days lost versus calendar days lost. An analysis of an actual weather-caused delay claim illustrates the impacts of those factors on the outcomes of the analysis. A contract should define anticipated weather delay days and their lingering days and provide threshold values for weather parameters to differentiate between predictable and unpredictable severe weather. The contract should clearly define how a time extension is granted in calendar days as a result of work days lost, and also address how a time extension is granted due to inefficiency caused by unusually severe weather. Future research may provide an appropriate mechanism for analyzing equivalent lost days to account for lost productivity.     

No-Damages-for-Delay Clause: Evaluating Contract Delay Risk

In recent years, there have been a number of construction disputes involving no-damages-for-delay clauses in construction contracts. This paper reviews the legal aspects of the no-damages-for-delay clause and presents in an easy-to-use flowchart the issues that need to be addressed to resolve disputes involving the no-damages-for-delay clause. Analysis shows that the clause presents a formidable obstacle for contractors to overcome if monetary damages are to be recovered. The contractor in most instances needs to show that the owner or the owner’s agent caused active hindrance or the owner demonstrated bad faith toward the contractor. The language of the clause is critical to determining the risk it conveys to the contractor. Examples of minimal, intermediate, and maximum risk language are given.     

FLORA: New Forensic Schedule Analysis Technique

While various factors such as float ownership, logic change, and resource allocation (FLORA) affect results of delay analysis, existing delay analysis techniques tend to ignore most if not all of them. To address this insufficiency this paper proposes a new schedule analysis technique called FLORA that simultaneously captures the dynamics of float, logic, and resource allocation in its analyses. FLORA analyzes not only the direct impact of a delay but also its “secondary” effect. The analysis process follows ten rules that are flexible and customizable. A case study is employed to illustrate its application. FLORA yields different and more reasonable outcomes compared to the window analysis technique. Each single analysis may also yield different or even conflicting results. By properly dealing with the current issues of schedule analysis, FLORA can be more reliable. Practitioners may readily accept its analyses and outcomes because they are able to specify, modify, and consent to the rules for schedule analysis to fit into a specific context in advance. Researchers may further evaluate the impacts of different factors on delay responsibility or apply FLORA to real projects to assess its strengths, weaknesses, and potential improvements.     

Method for Calculating Schedule Delay Considering Lost Productivity

A delay claim often occurs when a difference between the actual completion date and the contract completion date exists. The duration of a delay is an essential piece of information required for determining the cause of a delay. However, it is difficult to analyze a delay claim due to the fact that numerous factors that cause this delay, thereby making it a very complex issue. One of such factors is the lost productivity or loss of productivity. Despite the fact that it is one of the major causes of delay, there have been only a few studies that focus on converting lost productivity into delay duration carried out to date. Claims for productivity losses are generally the result of tension between the contractor and the owner. This tension arises due to the great difficulty involved in quantifying disruption effects. Thus, to calculate accurately the delay duration, a logical method for analyzing schedule delay caused by lost productivity is necessary. Therefore, in this study, we propose a method for analyzing construction schedule delay where this lost productivity is taken into consideration. This methodology was implemented on a case project to ascertain its practicability, and to decide whether it can be utilized in the case of a delay claim related to lost productivity. The significance of this paper is twofold. One is the method to convert the lost productivity into the delay duration, which can be applied to reasonable delay claim settlement. The other is the process to analyze the construction schedule delay considering lost productivity.     

Delay Time Analysis in Microtunneling Projects

Delay in microtunneling projects is a complex multivariate problem. Delay in microtunneling is defined as the nonworking time of a microtunneling project due to any reason other than scheduled stops. There are many reasons for delay such as mechanical failure of system components, leakage of hydraulic hoses, blockage of slurry pipes, and waiting time for excavated materials hauling equipment. Delay time increases the project duration and consequently the project cost. Delay data were collected from 35 microtunneling projects. Collected delay data were delay duration, delay reason, time, and location from the start to the stopping point. Five categories of delay causes were used in the analysis. Prediction of delay time will enhance the estimation accuracy of microtunneling project duration. A predictive model using a probabilistic approach was selected to represent the delay time. Based on data characteristics, a Weibull distribution was determined to best represent the overall delay duration in microtunneling projects. Using “regression with life data,” expected overall delay in a microtunneling project could be predicted as a function of driven length. The model will help contractors to estimate total project time with reasonable accuracy. Knowing the anticipated delay time will allow contractors to have a point of comparison for actual performance.     

Delay Mitigation in the Malaysian Construction Industry

This paper describes the importance of applying proper management in dealing with delays in construction for a growing economy. The main objective of this paper is to identify the management tools that are practiced in the local construction industry in mitigating delay. It also aims to identify the main factors that lead to project delays and to suggest recommendations on how to overcome or mitigate effects of the problem. Data is gathered from responses from questionnaire survey and interviews with those involved in construction project. The surveys and research findings indicate that delay incidents occur mainly during the construction phase of a project and one or more parties usually contribute to delay. This paper highlights the importance of having more experienced and capable construction managers as well as skilled laborers to enable the industry to develop at a faster rate either nationally or internationally.     

Delay Reporting Within Cost Accounting System

There is an imbalance in the visibility of costs of delays in the daily construction site work routine and the costs of overhead expenditures which to a large extent determine the magnitude of these delays. This imbalance frequently means that overhead expenditures are carefully scrutinized while delay costs may be totally ignored. The resulting suboptimization may not result in the lowest total project cost. A procedure is proposed to address this problem. The procedure works within existing cost accounting systems and is a modification of existing foreman-delay survey methods.     

Causes of Delay in Building Construction Projects in Egypt

Delay in construction projects is considered one of the most common problems causing a multitude of negative effects on the project and its participating parties. This paper aims to identify the main causes of delay in construction projects in Egypt from the point of view of contractors, consultants, and owners. A literature review was conducted to compile a list of delay causes that was purged based on appropriateness to Egypt in seven semistructured interviews. The resulting list of delay causes was subjected to a questionnaire survey for quantitative confirmation and identification of the most important causes of delay. The overall results indicated that the most important causes are: financing by contractor during construction, delays in contractor’s payment by owner, design changes by owner or his agent during construction, partial payments during construction, and nonutilization of professional construction/contractual management. The contractor and owner were found to have opposing views, mostly blaming one another for delays, while the consultant was seen as having a more intermediate view. Results’ analyses suggest that in order to significantly reduce delay a joint effort based on teamwork is required. Furthermore, causes of project delay were discussed based on the type and size of the project.