Construction Purchasing Certificate Program

construction_purchasing

From breaking ground to cutting the ribbon, the LBJ School’s certificate program in construction purchasing provides everything you need to know to effectively execute construction projects.

Buyers, contract administrators, project managers and executive directors are faced with a tough task when it comes to construction purchasing. From understanding and using new terms, remaining compliant with unfamiliar laws, developing control plans and schedules, and staying on budget – the process is daunting and the risks considerable. To successfully navigate and oversee this process requires training and real-world best practices.

Courses are taught by William “Bill” Agee, an expert in construction management, contract management and government audits.  To obtain a certificate, participants must complete four core curriculum sessions (CC1, CC2, CC3, and CC4) and one elective (CE1, CE2, CE3), over the span of two years. 

These programs will be offered virtually via Zoom.

Course Descriptions

CC1 - Basics of Construction Purchasing

Learning Objectives:

One of the fallacies of purchasing for a construction project is that “it’s just buying”—NOT! How often do you have a single project which could run for 24 to 40 months, employ literally hundreds of people performing specialized tasks, run multi-millions to even hundreds of millions of dollars to complete and have visibility, both inside and outside the agency or company, far broader than any other acquisition project used, have risk very pronounced with all decision and employs a vocabulary unique to the trade.

To some this would concern them with the issues noted, but to others they see an opportunity to manage a contract possibly far greater than most agencies’ budgets, be sought after by senior manager and board members, and improve individual opportunities by managing such a large project to a successful fruition.

They say a construction project, regardless of the type is a legacy acquisition, one you the individual leaves your own stamp and name upon. Most state buildings, many university buildings, hospitals, parks, and wildlife habitats to even the organization’s headquarters are built to be around for decades. As a matter of fact, once you possibly retire from the agency, the plaque on the front door will still bear your name for maybe another thirty to forty years. 

While many of the items we purchase can be bought similarly to others, some items, due to their exaggerated lead times and limited number of qualified contractors, can be a challenge to the skills of the buyer, contract manager and project manager are pushed to new heights in professionalism and responsibility. 

This session prepares the buyer for meeting the challenges of purchasing a major asset for the organization with a life expectance of possibly sixty to seventy years. It will show the areas of difference as well as commonalities we share with the everyday purchases to maintain and existing agency. However, the areas of new will separate you from the average buyer to the exceptional buyer after your first project. 

This session will help the professional to become familiar with:

  1. Terminology of the different trades on the jobsite.
  2. Assembling a construction team for a major project.
  3. Improve the person and teams project controls and cost control applications.
  4. Introduce the new advents of robotics in construction.
  5. Work with Gantt charts, build on materials (BoM), environmental concerns, using recycled and sustainable products into the building, using a BOE, WBS, to create management controls of the project.
  6. Understand and expand your horizons since construction purchasing is expanded to look at sections of project management and schedule risks.
  7. Discover the crossover of purchasing and contracts with QA/QC, inventory management, transportation, and global acquisition terms.
  8. Study the different types of contracts often employed for a construction project; CMAR, GMP, Escalation and incentive contracts, T&M, EPA, Time and Materials, as well as Unit Priced contracts.
  9. See how the solicitation process mirror much of our standard agency acquisition manual and where the differences lay.
  10. Understand more about bonds and which one is required where, the differences between bonds and insurance.
  11. While seeing the different contractual clause sought and employed as compared to a traditional purchase and more.

Who Should Attend:

This is a critical session for agency auditors, directors, facility managers, construction representatives, supply managers, purchasing agents and buyers, risk managers, contract managers, and inventory and warehouse managers or any personnel employed in managing a major contract on behalf of the agency. 

If any agency is planning a new building, a remodeling to an existing structure, a demolition project, the purchase of any capital assets for the operations or land rehabilitation or hazardous materials remediation you would fail the agency if you do not attend. Expand your professional horizons and get yourself up to speed in this huge area, but possibly in the future you might want to build your own home.

Course Takeaways:

This session will help you develop a confidence to manage a project other do not feel comfortable, but you will. It will show you’re the keys to success in managing the work packages in the sequence as the building is being constructed. You will be sought out for senior management presentations on the status and projection of the project completion both at the board, council, Board of Trustees, as well as senior staff level. 

You will feel comfortable in managing a huge contract and celebrate the success with all when you bring this in on budget, and in schedule to the original plan. You will become very proficient in employing and managing the project with a Gantt Chart identify start and completion dates of the various activities. This will convey the inter-relationships of purchasing with QA/QC, contract management, risk management, and project management in a single deliverable.

In the end you will celebrate the completion of a project you bought, managed through the various stages of construction and to a satisfactory fulfillment possibly saving the agency anywhere from 4 to 11% other overpay on projects. This is a skill set which will keep you being sought for the highest dollar acquisition for your organizations.

CC2 – Developing a Construction Acquisitions Manual

Formerly know as "Developing a Construction Purchasing Manual"

Learning Objectives:

A common question often made concerning a Construction Acquisition Manual is since we already have a general purchasing manual why do we need another? While a good question we need to address a few points of difference which can easily justify the need if not for a separate manual one which addresses the unique needs of acquiring a construction firm to build a new headquarters office, a new jail in the county, a new fire house in town as well as the variety of professional services unique to the field. 

Some of the major differences between construction purchasing as compared to more traditional, routine agency support and general purchases include:

  1. A new construction project could take years in the planning stage before even being taken to the board for budget approval. A school bond election is similar in the planning and approval duration.
  2. A mid-size construction project could be the equivalent of spending five to seven years in composite spend ($40M to $60M a year) for a mid-size agency on a single project could be between $80M to $250M plus.
  3. Most normal acquisitions are ordered and received in the same calendar year while a construction project, depending on the size may well run from 18 to 40 months after planning, budgeting, and design work.
  4. The visibility for a construction project is not only from the bottom to the top of the organization, board of directors/trustees, and even the impacted community. It will a prime target for both positive and negative aspects affecting the project to the local and state news. Like most projects in a political community about half the people are in support of the project and the other half are against.
  5. The traditional vendors whom the agency deals with for office supplies, janitorial supplies, office equipment, general services, operational and maintenance supplies cannot provide construction services to support a new building. In addition, the general contractors, subcontractors, and labor trades would not be tendering the previously mentioned. As such, this group will not be familiar with the general purchasing/procurement manual and the methodology usually employed in public acquisitions. 
  6. It would be embarrassing to turn away a contractor’s offering, saving the agency $3,500,000. Due to a technicality or being non-responsive as a new vendor/contractor.

We will highlight several areas we need to be cognizant of the contractor’s differences and needs so we can ensure a competitive, responsible, and responsive tender. In addition, we will also show how we can set up such a manual, deemed by national organizations as a Best Practice for Purchasing in one of three methods:

            a)         a complete unique and separate manual as a stand-alone for the agency and public entity uniquely designed for the construction contractors,

            b)         another application will employ a hybrid method attaching a section of new and unique construction areas while blending with traditional methods of public procurement.

            c)         the last application is to employ an exception manual with only unique areas noted as an attachment to the traditional procurement. manual.

Considering the small amount of time and money it takes to set up such a perceived ‘Best Practice” manual for the magnitude of dollars spent it is a minor step to make sure we receive good, favorable and money savings construction project tenders and proposals. The concept behind the manual development should articulate the process flow necessary for enacting a best value acquisition solution for the agency.

Who Should Attend:

This class should be required by all purchasers, buyers, managers, contract administrators, contract managers, project managers, site supervisors and financial/contractual auditors. A project with such broad reach and range should be aggressively pursued by all levels of managers and supervisors. The agency or public entities board should even be trained in this to ensure support and reference at the senior level.

Considering the field if construction has a few large companies at the top tier, it like a pyramid is supported by a broader base of smaller, more diverse and those qualified to enhance small business initiatives and set-aside programs.

Course Takeaways:

The session will provide many necessary and developed applications which will heighten the professionalism of the team and agency or organization. Having an organized and well-developed process for an activity which occurs infrequently, but due to its financial impact, no organization can afford a miscue or leave monies on the table considering the dollar value. It has been said a poorly organized and inefficiently developed acquisition program can leave upwards of seven percent (7%) of the original purchase price on the table at the close of a construction project. Just using a smaller project in value, $30M, this could translate into a loss to the agency or organization of an amount greater than $2M in overruns, poorly managed change orders, failure to manage a construction contract to a successful fruition and treating an acquisition like a purchase of a standard maintenance item.

Other defined takeaways for the agency will include:

  1. Having a formal manual will increase the professional structure of both the organization as well as the purchasing and contracts team.
  2. Having defined steps or activities will provide a checklist of activities allowing a less knowledgeable organization to handle items both uniformly as well consistently.
  3. Risk of all types will be minimized to the agency, or public organization, highlighting risks associated with budget, schedule, technical and process.
  4. Having one of the types of construction manuals noted will also make construction organizations feel more comfortable in solicitating in other efforts they might have passed on due to both confusion and the risk of failing to perform as the buying entity had so directed.
  5. Problems in both the solicitation as well as project deployment are both minimized and under the control of the buying organization.
  6. Having a formalized “Configuration Management and Control” section, formal name for the Change Order process, both minimizes problems and streamlines the contracts for better efficiency and minimal risk.
  7. The organization’s team will feel much better about the large construction project since we have broken it into manageable work packages, approximately 30 -35, by defined sections of the project development.
  8. Having both a flow chart of the process as well as articulating the individual steps to be followed in a specialized activity will help both the agency and contractor in consistency and best practices.
  9. With the development of a specialized section on the regularly scheduled construction meetings will ensure better focused, more productive, with a shorter time involvement for both the contractor and the agency, or public buyers team.
  10. Following the variety of checklist and forms included will ensure both the contractor and the agency will have an auditable and consistent contract at the time of closeout and audit.
CC3 – Project and Construction Management

Learning Objectives:

It is often surprising when we overlay the contract terms of a construction contract to that of the project management schedule, we see it is almost a perfect fit. However, it should be! The relationship between purchasing, contract management, and project management is a very tight relationship, but they see similar items in a different perspective. Purchasing is reviewing the requirement of the internal customer to ensure the proposals of the contractor fit the need and is within the budget requirement of the project. Once the contract is negotiated by purchasing it is then scribed into a contractual document and the organizations contract manager then takes over the agreement. Contract Management’s function is to ensure what was agreed between the parties in the executed contract delivered in accordance to the contract and for the price purchasing negotiated. The Project Manager’s job, at the jobsite, is to ensure the contractor fulfills the technical aspect of the building of the items so noted in the agreement. 

The session will make the participants aware of the tools available to assist both the contract manager and then project manager in better performing their areas of responsibilities. The session will show how a Gantt Chart is employed to better manage construction deliverables and ensure compliance by the contractor of his contractual duties. Considering the size of an average construction project; 5,000 to 8,000 tasks lines and covering a time horizon of 14 to 40 months an automated tool is essential. 

Employing such a tool for the contract manager allows them to transfer the contractual deliverables of the contract to a single graphic schedule being managed by the manager without having to pull a large contract file out daily. In the ‘grounding of a claim process’ three of the five criteria necessary to ground a claim against the contractor are accomplished by the contract managers copy of the Gantt Chart. 

The project manager can take his copy of the Gantt Chart to the jobsite with him either via access to the organization’s server or via a Cloud copy and know exactly what work is either ahead of schedule, running slightly behind and can verify specific work is being accomplished at the time noted on the schedule. The fact the work is broken down by work tasks allows for quick and effective communication with the contractor about areas of concern, issues and potential threats to the contractor’s ability to meet the agreed upon schedule.

A Gantt Chart could be easily used and should be employed by the three groups; purchasing, contract management and project management, for any large costs to the organization, have components with exaggerated lead times and any high-risk acquisitions to the organization. The following types of projects and acquisitions would include:

  • Construction
  • Remodeling
  • Demolition
  • IT hardware
  • IT software
  • Software installation
  • Long-term service contracts
  • Purchase of capital equipment
  • Long-term purchases of materials
  • Any project where the budget and timeline are critical to the organization or agency

Who Should Attend:

This class should be required by all who requisition any item(s) for purchase, buyers, purchasing managers, departmental managers, contract administrators, contract managers, project managers, site supervisors and financial/contractual auditors. A project with such broad reach and risk should be aggressively managed by all levels of managers and supervisors. The agency or public entities board should even be trained in this to make sure they can read the contract files in which a Gantt Chart is often a part of major acquisitions.

Due to the variety of projects which could be better managed by a Gantt Chart and the ability such a tool has in mitigating risk to the organization or agency this should be used aggressively and made a part of the contract document starting with purchasing.

Course Takeaways:

Seldom is a there a course under the heading of construction which has such flexibility and utility in so many other areas than Project Management and Contract Management. Considering the degree of anxiety caused by a delays, late deliveries and potential cost overruns having such a tool is a required mandate for any department.

In the session we will discuss:

  1. The different types of tools employed in managing a construction schedule both at the office and then jobsite.
  2. How we can convey the scope of the plan to the deliverables logged in by the contractor.
  3. Using the schedule to overlay the contractual requirement to the actual work plan for the project.
  4. How Purchasing, contract Management, and Project Management support each other in the work effort.
  5. Employing the Gantt Chart to validate contractor performance or not, on a given process.
  6. Using the schedule to connect to validate the actual budget employed in the construction effort.
  7. Using the Gantt Chart to ground claims and validate the areas of failure on a given process or task.
  8. In the event of job site injury, it will convey to OSHA the planned and executed safety meetings set for the employees and subcontractors.
  9. The schedule will also be a way to ensure some formal as well as informal audits of work accomplished.
  10. The schedule will allow of the contract manager to insert specific work requirements, as part of the contract required to be performance by the owner or buyer’s side of the table.
  11. A Gantt Chart allows the owner of the project to maintain an informal and in-process accounting of both activities and financial charges to bring any concerns to the new construction progress meeting.
  12. A forward-looking schedule, like the Gantt Chart, will allow for the owner and the contractor to be pro-active in looking at potential risks of delivery, slippage of the schedule or planning alternate activities to ensure the schedule stay on track for a successful fruition to the agency.
  13. The Gantt Chart on the screen becomes the focal point of review, insight and discussion during the construction progress meetings scheduled weekly by the owner.
CC4 – Construction Law and Contracting with CMAR Additions

Formerly know as "Legal Aspects of Construction Contracts"

Learning Objectives:

You cannot manage a construction project, remodeling effort or even a demolition of an aged structure without a contract between the agency and the contractor selected. However, aside from either having the agency’s counsel or an outside counsel to draft the agreement, the job of managing the project falls to a professional in either purchasing, contract management or project administration.  Despite having a legal professional, the actual job of managing the document and associated deliverables resides with the people in charge of ensuring both technical, financial and site development to the persons managing the project.

With counsel having drafted and executed the agreement for the agency they are now out of the picture as the deployment of the actual deliverables are being implemented. As such, it is the group noted earlier; purchasing, contract management and project management ensuring the day-to-day activities of the agency and the contractor are being fulfilled in accordance with the budget, schedule, technical and process activities cited in the agreement. This is not an easy job as a small remodeling or construction effort might have close to a hundred-plus different activities and tasks to be performed. A large-scale project might be as large as 10,000 to 50,000 tasks to be addressed.

As such, the internal management team, purchaser, contract manager and project manager must have a clear understanding of the project and the contractual requirements noted and mutually agreed upon in the contract. This is the reason we want to go over the areas most frequently employed in a construction contract and those areas which can and often cause concerns in and during the contractual process. This session will build a unique body of knowledge specifically addressing those unique and often required sections in a construction, remodeling, or demolition contract. It will focus on the areas of greatest risk to allow the agency personnel to be better prepared to address and protect the agency’s investment in this multi-million-dollar investment.

The only other person in the room, outside counsel, with a depth of contract knowledge is the contractor!

Who Should Attend:

This class should have broad reach within the agencies and organizations since decisions on these projects are usually made at the highest level. This can include purchasing, contract management and administration, project management, executive directors, department managers, counsel to even the board members. 

With many organizations we can multiple facilities around the state and geographical reach of the organization and multiple programs can be underway for remodeling work, repairs, new construction, renovations, to even construction during IT hardware installations.

As organizations mature it might be more than a few new projects every few years, but remodeling and additions being added on to a current building could covers dozens in a single year.

Course Takeaways:

This is a session with an abundance of valuable and essential takeaways for everyone. You can never have too much appreciation for the legal aspect of business in both your professional and personal life. Just a few of the major gains would be:

  1. A greater appreciation for the legal aspects of business as it relates to such a major expenditure for construction.
  2. Understanding where exactly our laws are derived and how we can maintain them current for today’s business environment.
  3. Appreciate the requirements of a legal and enforceable contract document or agreement.
  4. Ensure the agents and third parties are protected under the agreement.
  5. Understanding the rights and protections a party has when then other party breaches or defaults on an agreement.
  6. Helps the agency or organizations primary points of contacts are familiar with clauses unique and applicable to construction agreements.
  7. Provides an understanding of the different contract types applicable for use on construction projects.
  8. Ensuring the contracts are exact based on contract performance and defenses not aligned, statute of limitations, damages, specific performance, and alternate dispute resolution (ADR).
  9. Ensures the agency and its points of contacts fully appreciate the nuances associated with the variety of contracts applicable.
  10. Helps clarify specific terms dealing with liquidated damages, substantial completion, risk mitigations, delays, claims, damages, compensation structure, retainage, mechanic liens, bonds, insurance requirements, right-to-stop-work, correction of work, termination, relationship with subcontractors, and others.
  11. Understand the basis for claims under tort law on the construction law.
  12. Appreciate the value of connecting the agreement to a dynamic contract management tool to maintain the integrity of the contract process and much more.
CE1 - Construction and Contracts, Audits and Compliance

Formerly know as "Fundamentals of Construction Auditing"

Learning Objectives:

It is unfortunate that one of the greatest tools we have in both purchasing and contracts tools is seldom used—the contract audit. Every contract has a small clause stating, “we reserve the right to audit” and every contractor or vendor agrees to sale under such a standard but when we close out the contract upon completion, we often find no audit was ever conducted even if the project ran 32 to 48 months. Therefore, when we have to reestablish the contract progression from start to finish to close out this agreement, we find no audit write up but several change orders.

It is during this time we find a lack of technical completion to the project, a cost structure which would have been caught and adjusted in the owner or agencies favor and even claims for money due back to the agency are not collected. When the group hears this, they suddenly wish they had conducted an audit and we are now having to try and collect after close-out and final retention monies have been paid.

In addition, we will allow a dive into the motivations behind why contractors, and vendors commit fraud against an agency and see this project remiss in challenging for cost changes, change orders, or simply not paying enough attention to the contract under review. 

There are several reasons given for not conducting an audit or audits over a multi-year horizon for the acquisition of capital equipment., construction, remodeling efforts, IT hardware and software acquisition and implementation. These include:

  1. The lack of time on the part of the buyer, contract manager, project manager to even the agency auditor,
  2. I’m not an accountant so I could not conduct a financial audit, to even,
  3. The contract does not say I MUST conduct an audit, so I perceived this as an optional task.

This session will expose the buyers, contract managers, project manager, managers of departments to over twenty-four (24) different categories of audits and over seventy (70) audit types scattered between the different categories, where a financial audit is but one of the seventy different types. Other audit categories can include:

  • Pre-Qualification Audit

  • Purchasing Audit

  • Materials Audit

  • Financial Audit

  • Management Compliance Audit

  • Overhead Rates and Multiplier Audit

  • Project Management Audit

  • Equipment Rental Audit

  • Subcontractor Audit

  • Operational Audits

  • Inventory Audit

  • Safety Audit and many more.

Who Should Attend:

This is a critical session for agency auditors, directors, facility managers, construction representatives, supply managers, purchasing agents and buyers, risk managers, contract managers, and inventory and warehouse managers or any personnel employed in managing a major contract on behalf of the agency. 

This session would be perfect for indoctrinating new staff and managers of what we are expected to do by audited and when we need to schedule an audit for all the contracts for the organization, or the agency.

Course Takeaways:

Besides instilling a confidence in the agency personnel about audits, when to use which one and how to best conduct the audit it will make sure we are stretching the agency dollars for a ‘best value’ solution and minimizing risk. The variety of types will assist in showing where concerns are identified, and solutions can be attained.

Audits are considered a Best Practice activity and usually only three to four percent of audits are ever conducted according to the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies (CAPS). While some audits can take some time to evaluate and review others, like a compliance audit can be conducted at the agency’s office in a matter of just five minutes, not requiring any travel or expense to the organization. When contractors and vendors know you are watching, by auditing, they do a better job of performing to agency contracts.

CE2 – Construction Change Order Management

Formerly know as "Construction Purchasing: Managing the Change Order Process"

Learning Objectives:

Usually, one of the scariest sounds to an owner or their representative is that your contractor needs to talk with you about a potential change order. Change orders can occur in all aspects of purchasing from materials, services, equipment, and construction efforts. However, the impact on a construction effort can be critical to the project’s success. Before we even know if this could possibly enhance the completion of the contract, offer a value savings solution to affect a reduction in costs, or even simply abate a risk, most construction representatives the buyers, Owner’s Advocates feel their defenses start to rise.

A change order is a component of the change management process whereby changes in the Scope of Work agreed to by the Owner, Owner’s Representative, Contractor, and Architect/Engineer are implemented. These can occur in new construction projects, remodeling efforts and demolition of older structure.

Change orders can add to or delete work from the original scope of work in the contract which can alter the original contract amount and/or completion date. The seriousness of the change can literally force a project to an out-of-control state in the original budget as well as initial schedule completion.

Change orders are common to most projects, and very common with large projects, especially construction. The average construction project may process upwards of 50 to 70 change orders during the project according to the American Institute of Architects. After the original scope (or contract) is formed, complete with the total price to be paid and the specific work to be completed, a client may decide that the original plans does not best represent his or her definition for the finished project. Accordingly, the client will suggest an alternate approach.

Common causes for change orders to be created are:

  • The project's work was incorrectly estimated.
  • Technology can also force a change in the original plan.
  • The customer or project team discovers obstacles or possible efficiencies that require them to deviate from the original plan.
  • The customer or project team is inefficient or incapable of completing their required deliverables within budget, and additional money, time, or resources must be added to the project.
  • During the course of the project, additional features or options are perceived and requested.
  • Suddenly the project timeline is too long and must be accelerated for business reasons.
  • Supply chain delays or increase cost of goods can challenge the original budget plan.
  • The contractor looks for work items to add to the original scope of work later to achieve the lowest possible base bid price, but then add work items and fees back on once the contractor has been hired for the work. This is an exploitative practice.
  • Extreme weather conditions cause delays or require additional work to complete construction.

This session will assist the owner’s representative to develop an effective and manageable process connected with change orders, determine who has the right to effect a change order, look at change orders within various contract types, identify how certain contract clauses control risk, how change orders impact a project schedule, how to utilize time extensions with change orders, how to create an effective documentation process, describe how change orders become claims, how subcontractors utilize change orders, and methods to mitigate change.

Who Should Attend:

This session is for directors, facility managers, construction representatives, supply managers, purchasing agents and buyers, agency auditors, risk managers, contract managers, and inventory and warehouse managers. 

Board of Directors, Board of Trustees as well as Council Members should also put this down as a session to attend considering the size and impact a single construction project can have on an agency’s budget and service to their constituents.

Course Takeaways:

The participants will know when and how to best handle change orders, examples of change order forms, contract logs and best practice process flow will be shared. A detail of how to construct a risk assessment of the change order impacts will also be addressed and discussed. A overview of how to address such based on the various types of contracts which can be employed will be shown. Major sections of the program will help the participants understand the potential changes could have on both the project schedule and cost to the agency and contracted amount. We will help the attendees understand when the contractor requests a time extension if it is either necessary or warranted or should the agency file a claim and how to assess the claim worth. In addition, we will discuss the supporting documents necessary to require when a change requested is necessary or even warranted. Also, we will provide a series of tools to assist the owner, agency and buyers to mitigate changes assessed to the owner when they should be borne by the contractor or subcontractors.

CE3 – Construction Delays

Their effect, costs, and impact on your project

Learning Objectives:

A delay in a construction project is extremely risky to both the project owner (buyer) as well as to the contractor selected for the job. Today, with fierce competition, tight margins and exaggerated schedules are the right ingredients for issue with a construction project. Despite the growth in technology and tools in the hand of the Owner’s Advocate or the agencies construction managers delays of materials, labor and approvals can still cause major issues to the construction team.

Many risks faced between the owner and then contractor affect construction time. The costs of a lost day can be astronomical on either side of the table. Determining the exact cause of a delay can be had to identify and succinctly isolate who may be at fault. As such, quantifying the cost impact caused by a construction delay continues to challenge management team.

Usually claims can be more direct and easier to identify, connect to the party and assess a value, delays are not as straightforward and often presents challenges to the owner and then contractor. As a result, most construction claims usually bare a component related to delays. Generally, the capabilities to successfully and reliably evaluate and determine a delay can go beyond the normal reach of most purchasing agents, contract manager and projects manager and requires the expertise of a professional, such as an Owner’s Advocate or third-party construction manager. However, in this session we will show you some the tools often used to cite, ground and value a construction delay which will befall a project and have it ready for a forensic review.

This session will show some of the different ways used to calculate and assess the responsibility for any delay(s) on a construction project. This will allow the agency or organization to make sure they are not assessed with the fault of a delay and damages from others simply trying to avoid their responsibilities.

Who Should Attend:

Considering the potential large damages it is important that all who works on a construction project for the owner; buyer, purchasing agent, internal customers, contract administrator, contract manager, auditors, and senior managers be privy to the different methods and ways of assigning responsibility for delays, can assess the cost impact, articulate the project impact on the agency and be prepared to serve the other party with a true value of a delay on such a large scale project. Some delays, and their associated cost impact, can not only add to the cost of the project but in a few rare exceptions it literally killed the project being delivered to fruition.

Course Takeaways:

In the session we will show the participants how to drill down to the resulting impacts on the schedule, the budget and impact on the agency/organization. This session will show the participants:

  1. The varied types of construction delays often encountered on a jobsite and/or project.
  2. It will show how these can be addressed on the project relative to being:
  3. Excusable
  4. Non-excusable
  5. Critical
  6. Non-critical
  7. Compensable
  8. Non-compensable
  9. Concurrent
  10. It will also show the depth and level of resulting effects regarding time and financial damages.
  11. The failure to meet a schedule can have serious repercussions and consequences.
  12. We will show the techniques to measure a delay when there is no schedule. Using the ‘As-Planned’ schedule and the “To-Be’ schedule for support.
  13. How to employ a Contemporaneous Schedule to validate a delay as well as the importance of Critical Path Analysis.
  14. We will discuss the significance of delay analysis using both a Bar Chart Schedule and CPM.
  15. We will profile other delay analysis methods such as:
  16. Using fragments to quantify delay
  17. Impacted As-Planned
  18. Collapsed As-Built, and others
  19. Provide general guidelines for the Presentation and Recovery of Damages
  20. How is home-office overhead impacted by delays.
  21. The different ways delays can cause inefficiencies in the project.
  22. Identify what exactly acceleration is and how it can impact a project.
  23. We will identify Constructive Acceleration and project acceleration while quantifying both the cost and then time savings.
  24. We will highlight the various methods used to identify the cause of the delay
  25. We will evaluate the risks to both the owner and then Construction manager. Plus note best practices in Real-Time Claims Management.

Upcoming Courses in the Construction Purchasing Certificate Program


Project and Construction Management     Online     Mar 20, 2024 to Mar 21, 2024     Register >

Construction Law and Contracting with CMAR Additions     Online     Apr 24, 2024 to Apr 25, 2024     Register >

Basics of Construction Purchasing     Online     May 15, 2024 to May 16, 2024     Register >

Construction and Contract, Audits and Compliance     Online     May 29, 2024 to May 30, 2024     Register >

Developing a Construction Acquisition Manual      Online     Jun 04, 2024 to Jun 05, 2024     Register >

Project and Construction Management     Online     Jul 10, 2024 to Jul 11, 2024     Register >

Managing the Construction Change Order Process     Online     Aug 01, 2024 to Aug 02, 2024     Register >

Developing a Construction Acquisition Manual      Online     Aug 07, 2024 to Aug 08, 2024     Register >

Construction Law and Contracting with CMAR Additions     Online     Aug 21, 2024 to Aug 22, 2024     Register >

Construction Delays     Online     Aug 28, 2024 to Aug 29, 2024     Register >