Thought Leadership

Power Up Programme Management Best Practice Under NEC

02 August 2024
5 minutes read

According to King’s College London, one of the most common heard of claims is extensions of time when it comes to construction disputes. So, good programme management is pivotal to successful project delivery under NEC as well as protecting from potential disputes.

Our series of NEC webinars took a deep dive into Programme Management, hosted by our NEC expert – breaking down actionable examples and explaining the key elements of best practice.

The Programme is the basis for managing your work, which does require a high level of detail of the contractor’s planned delivery of the works. It also creates a series of obligations and entitlements – complete with contractual force as the Accepted Programme.

When following the contract properly, there should be a regular snapshot of an accepted programme all the way through, which also creates a springboard for fixes where required. This is usually monthly (though indicated in weeks under NEC) but can be at more frequent regularities – it has been known for projects to see a revised programme submitted every Monday morning for example.

 

Programme changes and float ownerships

For any construction project, programme changes are an inevitable scenario – whether it’s through weather delays, unforeseen site challenges, or even work progressing more quickly than anticipated. Transparent change management is a cornerstone of NEC4, requiring any changes to the programme to be communicated and agreed upon by all parties. This keeps everyone aware of the changes and their impacts, so they can plan accordingly.

A key concept within the programme management is float ownership, which refers to the ‘buffer time’ built into the project schedule to absorb delays without affecting planned Completion. In NEC4, float is considered a project resource to encourage collaboration and discourage any party from using it for their own benefit at the expense of the project.

The concept of owning the float collectively allows project teams to proactively manage risks, identifying potential delays early and working together to mitigate them later on. Once again, this brings in the need for regular, transparent and effective programme management – with regular updates and clear documentation completely essential to smooth progress.

‘Free float’ typically belongs to whichever party requires it first, with the buffer time being there to absorb any delay time as long as agreed within the Accepted Programme and it does not pose a risk to the planned Completion date – at which point an early warning would need to be triggered.

Meanwhile, ‘terminal float’ belongs to the contractor, despite not actually being referred to in the standard contract at all. This ‘terminal float’ is where the contractor plans to reach Completion or Sectional Completion earlier than the Completion date. With a principle that the contractor should be not better nor worse off as the project progresses, in these instances a compensation event would see the planned Completion date changed in line with the earlier Completion.

To understand more about float ownership and time risk allowance, you can watch back our webinar on NEC Programme Management, where Dr Stuart Kings explains more with practical examples here.

 

Managing the relationship

At the end of the day, no matter how much understanding of the contract there is and what system is in place, there is still a human element to this whole process.

Pre-submission programme review meetings can be implemented with the relevant parties, allowing you to run through the programme together, explain any updates and their associated reasons, and agree any changes necessary to ensure the programme is accepted.

In many cases, things are not accepted simply because they were not spoken through before formal submission, and easily could have been rectified by updating to the correct language for example. With the ability to make updates in real-time during such pre-submission meetings, it should in turn mean that programmes should be accepted by the Project Manager well within the two-week window allocated.

Such an approach goes to further demonstrate collaborative working and best practice to the client – as well as providing a springboard for assessing compensation events. The client should be at the heart of the process to stimulate collaborative working – and indeed it can even be outlined in the scope that pre-submission meetings are expected to feed into the overall process.

 

Importance of language and terminology

One really important thing is using the correct language that’s used within the NEC contract. This requires understanding of the contract and how it lays out different terminology – capitalising defined terms, and earmarking contract data with italics.

The conversations tab in Sypro can be particularly effective here, with the Project Manager able to leave requests for language to be updated as per the contract, which come with timestamps for auditing purposes for total clarity on such requests.

 

Keep your NEC knowledge topped up with our free webinars

Our NEC webinars are hosted by expert Dr Stuart Kings, with each taking a deep dive into different areas of the NEC contract that you can be maximising. Open to all in the built environment sector, the sessions help you with best practice – and allow you to earn CPD points for attending.

Sign up today for the next session, which will take place on 5 September with a focus on one of the new Secondary Options under NEC4 – X29 Climate Change.


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