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how to use stop period in the Schedule

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SM PUM
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Hello All,

I have been working on a Railway Project.The project was stopped for 4 months and now is restarted ( Stopped From 1st Aug till 31 Dec,2011).I have updated the schdule keeping the original baseline,therefore the planned % complete kept on Increasing but actual work was stopped.Now when the EOT has not yet been approved and Our manager says that we will claim EOT near the finish date of the project.I have not been through such situation before.what is the correct way to update schedule in such situatuation?? and how we utilize stop period in a project schedule and at what stage.Is my manager right that EOT claim is submitted near the project finish?

Please advise.

 

Regards

Replies

Rafael Davila
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it is simple, as said before;

create a calendar exception [non work days] for the work stoppage period and apply the exception to all impacted calendars/activities as not all activities might be stopped, such as general conditions.

it is all in the calendars, easier than manually stopping thousands of impacted activities if a full stoppage or even if stoppage to a single activity it is still easier to apply the calendar exception to the impacted activity.

at times it is not about a single activity stoppage but it might be about a single activity being stopped intermittently, like when the owner allows or denies access to certain areas of work on intermittent time ranges, here the calendar approach will shine even more.

as we say at home, there are many ways to skin a cat          

... but not all ways are equal !

Raymund de Laza
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Hi,

Bear in mind that Partial Suspension and Full Suspension of the Project differs in Impact. EOT will depend on the result of the TIA from Partial or Full Suspension.

Regards,

mehmet can nazsiz
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I have updated the schdule keeping the original baseline,therefore the planned % complete kept on Increasing but actual work was stopped.Now when the EOT has not yet been approved and Our manager says that we will claim EOT near the finish date of the project.I have not been through such situation before.what is the correct way to update schedule in such situatuation?? and how we utilize stop period in a project schedule and at what stage.Is my manager right that EOT claim is submitted near the project finish?

Please advise.

Kannan CP
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Carlos,

I agree with you except the updating of the whole project with data date 31.12.2011. This will change all remaining activities data date to 31.12.11. The stoppage may be applicable to few activities.

Rafael Davila
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The method Carlos describe seems like an application of a Windows analysis applied to this particular case. Both are similar, TIA is a snapshot in time and as such uses one DD while Windows is a time window and uses two DD.

At times the issue is which method you are required to use by contract documents. We submit TIA for EOTs and simple Delay claims, for more complicated claims we use Windows unless some agreement using common sense is reached.

In my opinion if Windows analysis were prescribed under our contracts it would be used not only for EOTs but also for monetary compensation in due time and not late, it would be a better choice. "TIA-only" promotes delaying the monetary issue for too late as TIA is generally geared for EOT's and not for monetary claims. I believe in the long run Owner and Contractor will benefit although for some reason Owners prefer to delay the claim, perhaps in the hope of making it harder for the Contractor and flex his arm.

Requiring a TIA or a Windows analysis depending on the claim and requiring it to be on time time will prevent many cases to end up in court. Perhaps courts shall start requiring Owners and Contractors to at least try and document true effort on time and if not apply some penalty to the party(es) that did not show this remedy or any other reasonable was tried.

Carlos Arana
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SM PUM,

Rafael is right, this is the exact and best moment to perform a TIA, which may be easier than the method I described. 

Best regards,

Carlos.

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 21 hours 15 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
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TIA is perhaps the easiest and most acceptable method for your particular need.

I believe when you submit a TIA up to the date of your next update date and then submitting TIAs in increments you keep it on the prospective, you keep informed the Owner and give him many times the opportunity to take corrective action.

For my ease my sample job was not really updated but the idea is to submit an updated schedule that reflects the status at the moment of impact rather than the non updated baseline and this is key.

TIA is simple, it is not forensic, forensic methods can be quite complicated and perhaps this is one of the reasons our courts prefer it. TIA in this case because there are no concurrent delays to consider and allocate shall yield equal results to a Windows analysis, keep it simple.

http://ronwinterconsulting.com/Time_Impact_Analysis.pdf

http://www.cpmiteam.com/assets/CauseEffectVol1.pdf

Carlos Arana
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I don't fully agree with your manager. Even if the formal claim will be presented near the end of the project, you must leave evidence since now (I mean it, right now) of how the suspension is affecting your schedule, and the client must know this evidence.

 

I think that the focus of your problem is this phrase: "I have updated the schdule keeping the original baseline,therefore the planned % complete kept on Increasing but actual work was stopped." You must create a schedule model using the Data Date concept. In this model you must be very objective to describe what has really happened, not what was expected to happen (point 2).

1. Make sure that the suspension is clearly specified in written form, in a document signed both by the client and the contractor. The document must specify what caused the suspension; that this suspension will impact the finish date specified in the contract and that your party reserves its right to claim a new finish date. This might be already done by a modifyng agreement to the contract, just make sure that the suspension is adequately specified in written form.

2. You should create a schedule model with the data date on 01AUG11, in this model you will specify what work was already done (in field) before this date and re-schedule what work was still remaining to do after this date, respecting the contract logic. In this schedule, you might want to support the "already done" dates with a field document. The focus of this schedule is to be a reliable document of the status of the project at the moment of the suspension. Submit this schedule to the client and save it as your "01AUG11" schedule update.

2. Make a copy of this schedule and change the data date to 31DEC11, reschedule without updating progress. After you reschedule (and provided that your CPM network is adequately modeled), you will notice that the Finish milestone will be far from the contract date. This will be your "31DEC11" update but you may also call it your "Entitlement" schedule. You might submit this schedule to the client, as an informative document to keep the client informed of the consequences of the suspension BUT this schedule has 2 purposes: to ensure this "Entitlement" to finish late and to make the client request an acceleration to finish closer to the contract's date. Keep this impacted schedule (In your software format and the letter of reception by the client) as a specific file because it will be used when the formal claim is presented.

3. Make a copy of the entitlement schedule that will be used to track the project (We will call this the "Project Controls" schedule). In this copy, the project managers might take the decissions to accelerate the schedule, which may take the finish date closer to the date that was originally agreed in the contract, but remember that neverthless the comprisson measures, the claim will be resolved based in the dates from the "Entitlement" schedule, not based on the dates from this "Project controls" schedule.

In resume, you must finish with 3 schedules:

1. "01AUG11 Schedule Update", submited to the client and signed by both parties.

2. "31DEC11 Schedule Update" or "Entitlement Schedule", submited to the client and signed by both parties.

3. "Project Controls Schedule" where the managers might decide to comprise the schedule. This for the moment should not be submited to the client, just when he requests comprisson. This schedule will be also used to track progress.

Also, you might want to read the AACEi's Recommended Practice 29r-03 "Forensic schedule analysis", it is not perfect but at least the "baseline validation" protocol will be helpful. This is what I would do in your case.

Best regards,

Carlos.

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 21 hours 15 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
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BEFORE IMPACTPhotobucket

AFTER IMPACT

 Photobucket

  1. update job to status date as of work stoppage start date, this will be your un-impacted job
  2. create a calendar exception [non work days] for the work stoppage period and apply the exception to all impacted calendars/activities as not all activities might be stopped, such as general conditions.
  3. apply the exception and will get the impacted job.

About when to ask for EOT you shall inform in writing as soon as you find out the job is being delayed. If the delay is longer than the usual updating period I suggest claiming all EOT as of each period until it stops.

Best regards,

Rafael