Change Management Schedule benefits and uses

The Building Contract compels us to provide written notifications of any events that may result in either a delay to the Time for Completion, or an increase in the Contract Price.

The fast track nature of most projects today means that a number of things could cause a delay or increase the overall project cost. Therefore, in acceptance of this situation and in a common desire to avoid the contractual correspondence demanded by the Contract in respect of each and every situation, the Change Management Schedule can be proposed to the Engineer and Client.

The purpose of the Change Management Schedule is to ensure the successful delivery of the project by managing the design development and the effects thereof. It is inevitable that a Contractor have to accommodate changes on an ongoing basis. The introduction of a change management schedule should not be seen as a “finger pointing” exercise. Its purpose is merely to manage a large number of changes in a logical sequence especially if the project from an overview perspective is inevitably not fully defined in its extent and, therefore subject to design development.

All changes that have a potential delay or cost implication would be recorded on the schedule instead of being notified via a contractual letter in each instance. Alternatively a notice can be attached to the schedule every 28 days or within the prescribed period as stated in the Contract in order to maintain Contractual conformity. This schedule should form the basis of a regular meeting, where effects of changes can be discussed by all parties. The list will be fairly extensive, as all items great and small will be recorded. This meeting could be held fortnightly at first, to coincide with the site meetings, but may need to be held more regularly, depending on how the situation develops.

The next step would be to evolve this schedule into a format that would allow the management of these changes. This will include the description of the event, date introduced, parties affected, contractor’s cost, subcontractor’s cost, status and comments. You could propose that the schedule be managed in the following sections:

• Items that have caused or could cause a delay to the construction programme.
• Items of a significantly disruptive nature.
• Increased scope of contract subject to increased preliminaries/acceleration costs.
• Items that should form part of a “give and take” understanding.

In summary, this could prevent the Contractor and Engineer in entering into a “letter writing war”. Most Contractors are of the opinion that managing changes pro-actively with cost certainty will allow all parties to work towards a common goal. By focusing on the critical issues only will make the successful completion of a Project easier for everybody.