Managing Schedule Delays
Osama Saad, MBA, PMP, PSP, CCP, PMI-SP
Reinventing planning and project control. I help planning engineers prepare progress reports in seconds and analyze the project with one click I Power BI, Project Control, Delay Analysis and Claims Consultant & Trainer
How should we manage the schedule delays? Should we make regular schedule changes
What is a delay?
A delay can mean different things to different people. A delay could be in:
Metaphorically speaking, a delay is an illusion - it doesn't exist. Some plants grow slower than others. Some people eat slower than others. It takes time to go from point A to point B. Is there a delay here? No, it is just the natural course of execution. Humans, however, love to put labels and make a meaning of everything. A good example of that is labeling delays in construction projects. The only thing that allows us to determine a delay in construction is having a baseline schedule
How do the majority of planning engineers manage schedule delays?
In my experience, many planning engineers intentionally make regular schedule changes in the schedule updates to recover the delays and show the project is on track. This is not a good practice. In fact, the schedule changes should be kept to a minimum, just enough to ensure the reliability of the schedule and not to recover the delays. Otherwise, the baseline becomes useless and hence, we lose the value of the only tool that helps us define delays. If we continue to show that the project is on track, why do we even need a baseline in the first place? When you forecast a delay, this suggests that there is something wrong and requires your attention. You might need to increase the manpower or expedite the material delivery.
How should we develop a recovery schedule?
When the delays become significant, it becomes very hard to follow the baseline schedule. This is when a recovery schedule is needed. A recovery schedule reflects the Contractor's corrective actions and recovery measures
The scariest word in construction is "delay" because of the associated significant consequences that can include liquidated damages, job loss, prolongation cost, arbitration, court, market reputation, etc. Here are a few points that should be considered when a recovery schedule is developed.
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- The recovery schedule should be developed when there is a significant delay and it becomes impractical to follow the baseline.
- The baseline schedule remains the ultimate and most important reference point for progress measurement
- The progress can be reported against both the baseline and the recovery schedule to see how "effective" your recovery effort is. However, under any circumstances, the performance measurement against the baseline must be shown in all reports including the official submissions.
- Frequent recovery schedules should not be developed. Otherwise, the recovery schedules and the baseline lose their value. As a general practice in planning, schedule changes should be kept to a minimum.
Note that everything that has been discussed so far assumes that the delay is the Contractor's responsibility. In other cases, the delay is beyond the reasonable control of the Contractor and it becomes impossible to complete the project on time. Therefore, an extension of time claim
Embrace delays
The best way to overcome your fear of something is to face it. Instead of hiding behind some logic changes that will give you a temporary sense of relief, we should develop effective coping mechanisms and recovery measures. We should approach schedule delays with a healthy mindset. Take the time to analyze the situation and develop feasible corrective actions. Modern scheduling software tools such as Primavera P6 and MS Project have serious imitations in managing projects so you will eventually need to do a lot of work using other tools such as Excel or Power BI to support your recovery effort.
Regards,
Planner
5mohow do i use these other tools please
Project planning manager at Mining Engineering services
6moThank you for your blog it is improving the knowledge regarding the project management.
Project Planner / Scheduler at Task Engineering Solutions Limited
6moThat was highly informative. Thanks so much for sharing.
Adani | Ex Vedanta | Project Management | MS Projects | Primavera P6 | Project Planning | Monitoring & Control | Procurement | Aluminium & Copper Smelter Refinery | Green field & Brown field Project | CIT Coimbatore
6moThanks. I believe, There are so many attributes which are contributing for delays. It starts from poor planning (miscalculation of duration, inappropriate allocation of resources, improper sequence of activities and work front release), work front availability, resources mobilization, payment issues, rework due to poor quality etc., In general, nobody in construction projects like to highlight and accept the "delay" in open forum. It becomes tendency to hide to senior management during the review by correcting the baseline schedule. As you said rightly, the baseline schedule not to be altered at any point of time. Rather, we need to focus for mitigation plan while our schedule highlights the delay in activities. Each activity deserves certain duration for its completion. Right amount of duration for each activities have to be assigned from the day of project schedule developed, rather than convincing us falsely and temporarily by assigning incorrect duration for satisfying the management. Bold decision must be taken to accept the delay and highlight the same to management for appropriate decision making process and solution. My humble opinion.
Commercial/ Contracts Manager
6moVery helpful!