Understanding a Project through a Performance Timeline

Some of the construction claims that Delve Underground works on involve evaluating a project’s problems and the resulting delays to the project’s schedule. We often rely on the contemporaneous monthly project schedule updates to evaluate the progress of work, critical path, and effects of delaying events on the work, but there’s another invaluable tool: a project timeline. A project timeline supplements the project schedule and can illuminate significant details about the job.

All types of projects can benefit from having a timeline. Information used to create a timeline is best displayed in bar chart form. The project duration calendar becomes the basis for the horizontal timeline. The bars on the bar chart summarize relevant dates and milestones. The real benefit of a timeline is that it visually shows the events that occurred along the project’s duration. The timeline can (1) add to our overall understanding of how the project was constructed, (2) identify the types of problems encountered, and (3) confirm that the project completion was delayed. Also, the source of the information used to prepare the timeline must be recorded because these supporting documents may be needed later.

Bid Documents & Contracts

Bid information indicates when plans and specifications became available to bidders, the number of addendums issued prior to bid, and when bids were opened.

  • The prime contract and subcontract may show dates when designers, the owner, and contractors entered into various contractual arrangements. Significant gaps between the date of the agreement and date of signatures could indicate there were problems with scope or price negotiations.
  • Contracts may also include the planned date of the Notice to Proceed and the initial contract duration. Important: Indicate whether the contract duration is in work days or calendar days.
  • Contracts may also provide project schedules or milestones. These can form the basis for the as-planned period of performance.

Plans & Specifications

This bar shows when building and grading permits were issued and may provide more permit details.

Provide drawing history to show when the 50% and 100% Construction Documents (CD) were issued.

  • Significant plan revisions by the design team after the 100% CD—usually called Bulletins—may be indicated in the drawings’ title block. So-called minor changes may be issued as Architect Supplemental Instructions (ASI). Bulletins issued months and even years after the 100% CD may indicate changes to the work to correct design flaws and could result in delays and change orders.
  • Track as-planned work on the timeline. Sometimes plans and specs may provide work stage or sequence requirements, or dates when certain work must start or finish. For example, bridge foundation work that’s part of a large roadway improvement project could only start at the end of June and had to be completed by the end of September due to permit restrictions.

Permits & Inspections

This information on the timeline can reveal problems with starting work or problems with the design if additional building permits were issued near the end of a job. Also, inspection correction notices should be evaluated; these could point to problems with flawed design or deficient construction.

RFIs, Change Orders & Field Directive

Requests for information (RFI), change orders, and field directives are construction administration documents that may be summarized in Excel logs and sorted by date. Track these documents on the timeline by creating a separate bar for each type of document. For example:

  • The number of open RFIs each month and total number of RFIs may indicate design problems requiring resolution in the field, resulting in change order requests and project delays.
  • Summarize and analyze information from change orders in an Excel spreadsheet. On the project timeline, a bar that shows issued change orders and dollar amount issued each month may provide information about project delay. If change orders extend the contract duration, show the revised contract completion dates on the contract information bar.

Correspondence

Note the dates of key project events on separate bars in the timeline. Create a log of correspondence (such as letters and emails), which can later be filtered for issues that may have impacted the job. For example, a letter stating that utility relocations were complete on a certain date is important and may provide verification of the information from the monthly schedule updates.

Conclusion A project timeline can shed more light about a job than the schedule alone, and provide a basis for evaluating project scheduling information and impacts of delaying events. Information used to develop a timeline from project records can be displayed using a bar chart format. Each bar can summarize in graphical format the dates of relevant project information that would not otherwise be provided in the schedule. The real benefit of a timeline is realized when the information is visually presented on a summary level chart that spans the duration of the project.