Here is the mindset of “De-Coding Construction Risk Management”

December 28, 2011


Part 1 & 2 have been posted, the next segments are almost complete and will be posted before 2011 comes to an end. Read this information and get prepared for 2012.

Potential claims have not always been something that construction companies put in the project management basket, that’s why claims preparation is, for the most part, a forensic procedure. In recent years, the process of early preparation for claims avoidance has been dubbed Risk Analytics. Some of us have pioneered the process through claims avoidance education and many “experts” have cropped up with detailed procedures manuals – still, claims are forensic in nature as management scrambles to “re-construct” the various scenarios that led to the core dispute. I have always preached to my Clients that contemporaneous records are Gold when it comes to legal action. The strength of accurate contemporaneous records as supportive documentation usually leads opposing attorneys to recommend that their Clients reach out for a negotiated settlement.


In recent consulting work, covered by non-disclosure agreements as long and as rambling as the AIA - A201 General Conditions, I have found that the major players definitely don’t want anyone to know that they needed outside help in solving procedural problems. Those problems are a double edge sword; technology has streamlined the production, assimilation and proliferation of documents, however, some stakeholders in the loop don’t thoroughly “read” the documents produced. Some “boiler-plate” has been refined and is very stable, but when someone decides to tweak the standard, cutting and pasting can re-define the results as well as produce unanticipated gaps in the clarity of interpretation.

Artificial Intelligence has not advanced to the point of mitigating the majority of the risks, REAL Intelligence and a strong Knowledge-base is required to create, and integrate procedures for a systematic “hands-on” review of contract documents. Aero-space and government procedures which follow the in-depth military mumbo-jumbo of sets and subsets, cross references that are circular, and have more codes than Microsoft has dollars can be defeated by primitive application of OCR, keyword searches and actually “reading” to determine the intent of words and phrases of contracts and other directional documents.

I am strongly pro-active on the creation of the necessary Knowledge-base, training and motivation to bring staff to another level of awareness in contract administration, the inherent relationship to construction procedures and schedule compliance. Accurate and timely documentation needs to precede and accompany the construction process to avoid losses.