By Steve Rizer
How often should schedules be updated for construction projects in which there is no contractual language addressing the issue? In such circumstances, should schedules be updated weekly, monthly, every two months, or on some other timetable? J. Kimon Yiasemides and Zeynep Guven of Warner Construction Consultants Inc. tackled this puzzler during “Consideration of Claims Issues in the Creation and Update of Schedules,” a 90-minute webinar that WPL Publishing held last week.
Yiasemides weighed in first. “If you don’t have a contract requirement, then what is appropriate? I would say ‘monthly’ is generally appropriate, where possible.” He conceded that certain circumstances, such as a long design period or a stop-work period, might prolong the need for an update. “But, I wouldn’t recommend going more than a month or two without an update.”
Yiasemides reported that on occasion he sees a request for a weekly schedule update. “Really, you’re not going to improve the accuracy of your update” by performing such a function on a weekly basis, he said. “By the time you’ve updated it, things have changed, and it may be several days later, and you can’t react to it. I think my best-practice recommendation there is to use the forms created in the schedule software.” He noted that “very few” projects warrant a weekly update. “In fact, I’ve never been on a project that really needed a weekly update.”
Guven then informed the webinar audience that she was involved in a project with weekly updates. “It was a design-build project, and it was fast-paced, and the contractor wasn’t submitting the weekly updates to the owner, but I think it was a good tool for the project team to talk about. They had weekly meetings. Every Monday, the superintendents would go over the schedule. So I think from that standpoint it was helpful for the project team because there were a lot of changes.”
However, the speakers were quick to point out the unusual circumstances within that particular project.
Work was performed continuously for six days a week, grew from about $40 million to approximately $80 million, and was “over a year long,” Guven told the webinar audience.
“And they had a full-time scheduler on the project,” Yiasemides said. “So, that was more of an exception, but [for] aggressive projects like that, yeah, you might find yourself in that situation” whereby a weekly update may prove worthwhile.
Earlier in the webinar, Yiasemides and Guven discussed a wide variety of topics involving baseline creation, with segments entitled "Level of Detail," "Identify Work Responsibilities," "Obtain a True Baseline with Buy-In," "Weather Delays," "Use Fundamentals in Baseline Schedule Creation," and "Basis of Calculation Set."
To purchase a recording of the webinar, visit http://constructionpronet.com/Products/Consideration-of-Claims-Issues.aspx.
