Insights
Field notes from the controls function.
Written as ordered series you can read start to finish, plus standalone pieces. Each series is dated and numbered.
The SCL Protocol, in Practice
2 of 24 published · latest 25 Sept 2026Delay vs Disruption: They're Not Twins
Delay is about time — an event pushes out the completion date, so you argue an extension of time. Disruption is about productivity — work becomes less efficient, so it costs more, whether or not the job finishes late. Different claims, different tests, different evidence. Run one as if it were the other and you can lose both.
7 min readWhat the SCL Protocol Is Actually Trying to Solve
The SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol is a shared rulebook for how to have the delay conversation well — not a verdict on how it ends. It is not law, not a contract, and it decides no one's entitlement. Used from day one, it stops most disputes before they start.
7 min readBasics of Construction Claims
7 of 8 published · latest 25 Sept 2026How a Delay Is Measured
There is no single correct way to measure delay — there is a correct way for the records, the programme quality and the timing in front of you. Choosing the method, and being able to defend the choice, is most of the analysis.
9 min readNotices & Records
The analysis everyone finds interesting comes last. By the time it arrives, the outcome is usually already fixed by two unglamorous things done — or not done — at the time: the notice served, and the record kept.
8 min readConcurrent Delay
Concurrent delay is the most contested concept in delay claims because it sits exactly where entitlement to time and entitlement to money part company. The label is applied loosely and the law is unsettled — which is precisely why it rewards precision.
8 min readWho Owns the Delay?
Once a delay to completion is established, the outcome turns entirely on risk allocation — whose risk was the delaying event under this contract, read against this governing law. Three categories carry most of the answer; the interesting cases live in the margins.
8 min readDelay vs Disruption
Delay and disruption are used interchangeably on site and conflated in submissions — and that conflation is one of the most common reasons a genuine productivity loss recovers nothing. They are different effects, proven in entirely different ways.
8 min readExtension of Time — Beyond the Basics
An Extension of Time is widely misunderstood as a claim for money. It is not. Understanding precisely what an EOT secures — and what it deliberately leaves unresolved — separates a position that holds from one that unravels on review.
8 min readCritical Path Analysis for Construction Claims
Almost every delay dispute turns on the critical path — and almost every weak one rests on a critical path that was never interrogated. The distinction between the schedule's critical path and the project's driving path is where claims are won and lost.
8 min readDirector's View
2 of 8 published · latest 12 Aug 2026Why a Beautiful Dashboard Can Still Be Useless
A dashboard's job is to change a decision, not to look impressive. Data volume is not insight, and a beautiful chart nobody acts on is a cost, not an asset.
4 min readSchedule Updating Is Not Schedule Control
Dropping progress into the programme every month is updating. Using it to change what happens next is control. Plenty of teams do the first and none of the second — and then wonder why the date keeps slipping.
4 min readDirector's Field Notes
10-part series · 8 Jul 2026 – 9 Sept 2026What I Look For Before I Accept Reported Progress
Reported progress is a claim. Before it becomes a fact I can forecast on, it has to reconcile with the record — actual dates, physical evidence, and the sequence the work was actually built in.
4 min readWhat Negative Float Actually Tells Me
Negative float is not an entitlement and not a verdict. It is the network telling you it cannot meet a constrained date on the current logic — and the useful question is always why.
4 min readWhen I Receive an EOT Submission, I Don't Start With the Narrative
The narrative is the contractor's case, and a good one is persuasive by design. I start somewhere less persuadable — the programme, the records, and the path that was actually driving completion when the event occurred.
4 min readWhat I Check Before I Trust a Contractor's Recovery Programme
A recovery programme is a claim about the future. Before I let it change how the job is run, I test whether the mechanics behind it are real — or whether the dates were simply pulled left.
5 min readWhat I Look For When a Programme Says It Is Recovering
Reported recovery and demonstrated recovery are different things. A programme can announce that it is recovering for months while the evidence quietly says otherwise.
5 min readHow I Challenge an EOT Without Becoming Adversarial
Rigour and hostility are not the same thing. The strongest EOT assessments are the least emotional — they test the submission against transparent, evidential criteria, not against the reviewer's mood.
5 min readWhat a PMC Should Never Blindly Accept
The Employer's controls function exists to assure, not to relay. There is a short list of things I never pass upward without testing them first — because once they are accepted, they become the record.
5 min readWhat I Expect From a Project Controls Manager
The best controls managers I have worked with are not the ones with the tidiest programmes. They are the ones who own the number, challenge what does not add up, and tell me what to do about it.
5 min readWhen Automation Just Automates Bad Controls
Automation raises the floor; it does not raise the ceiling. Automate a good control and you get consistency at scale. Automate a flawed one and you get bad controls, faster and with more confidence.
5 min readWhy an Approved Baseline Can Still Be a Poor Control Baseline
Acceptance and quality are different questions. A baseline can be contractually approved and still be a poor instrument to control the job with — and knowing the difference is part of the job.
5 min readMore insights
What Does a Project Controls Director Actually Do?
The title is common; the role is widely misunderstood. A Project Controls Director exists to make a programme's numbers trustworthy — and to turn them into decisions the board can act on.
6 min read Delay Analysis · 16 Aug 2026Concurrent Delay in Construction
Concurrent delay is one of the most argued-over concepts in construction claims — because it sits exactly where entitlement to time and entitlement to money can part company.
6 min read Construction Claims · 16 Aug 2026FIDIC Extension of Time Claims
Under FIDIC, a strong Extension of Time claim is won as much on procedure as on merit. Miss the notice, and even a genuine delay can fall away.
6 min read Delay Analysis · 15 Aug 2026AACE 29R-03 Forensic Schedule Analysis Explained
AACE International's Recommended Practice 29R-03 is the most widely cited framework for classifying forensic schedule analysis methods. It doesn't pick a method for you — it gives a common language for choosing one you can defend.
6 min read Delay Analysis · 15 Aug 2026SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol: Key Principles
The SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol is a widely referenced statement of good practice for dealing with delay and disruption. It is guidance, not law — but its principles shape how credible claims are built and assessed.
6 min read Delay Analysis · 14 Aug 2026Time Impact Analysis (TIA): A Practical Guide
Time Impact Analysis models a delay event into the programme as it stood at the time, to show its prospective effect on completion. It is the method most contracts and protocols reach for first — when the records support it.
7 min read Delay Analysis · 14 Aug 2026What Is Delay Analysis in Construction?
Delay analysis is the disciplined process of establishing what actually moved a project's completion date — and who is entitled to time or money as a result. Being late is not the same as being entitled.
6 min read Delay & EOT · 12 Aug 2026How to Assess an EOT Claim
Writing a strong EOT claim and assessing one fairly are different disciplines. From the reviewer's chair, the job is to test entitlement against the evidence — consistently, and defensibly — not to negotiate it.
7 min read Digital · 11 Aug 2026Power BI for Project Controls
A dashboard is not intelligence. Power BI can turn controls data into decisions — or into a prettier version of the same overwhelming detail. The difference is discipline, not tooling.
6 min read Programme Governance · 11 Aug 2026What Senior Management Actually Needs from Project Controls
Ask a board what they want from project controls and they rarely say 'more data' — yet that is what they usually get. The functions that earn a seat at the table do the opposite.
6 min read Primavera P6 · 10 Aug 2026Common Primavera P6 Scheduling Mistakes
P6 will faithfully calculate nonsense if you feed it nonsense. The most damaging scheduling mistakes are not exotic — they are ordinary habits that quietly destroy a programme's reliability.
6 min read Programme Governance · 9 Aug 2026Programme Controls vs Project Controls
The terms are used interchangeably, but the step from one to the other is real — and it is where controls stops being a reporting function and starts being a governance one.
5 min read Schedule Assurance · 8 Aug 2026Why Recovery Programmes Fail
A recovery programme is a promise to leadership that lost time will be regained. Most break that promise — not because recovery was impossible, but because the plan was never actually deliverable.
6 min read Digital · 4 Aug 2026Using Python to Improve Primavera P6 Schedule Assurance
Reviewing schedule quality by hand does not scale. On a large programme, no team can check thousands of activities across a dozen contractors every month and stay consistent — so the check itself has to become code.
7 min read Schedule Assurance · 28 Jul 202615 Warning Signs of a Poor Construction Schedule
A programme is a claim about the future, and like any claim it can be sound or hollow. Most poor schedules fail in the same recognisable ways.
8 min read Delay & EOT · 21 Jul 2026What Makes an EOT Claim Defensible?
The gap between days claimed and days awarded is usually a gap in discipline, not entitlement. I have seen a 291-day claim resolve to 64 — because the analysis behind it was built to survive scrutiny.
7 min read Planning · 14 Jul 2026Critical Path vs Longest Path
They are often treated as identical. On a constrained programme they diverge — and knowing which delays truly threaten completion depends on telling them apart.
5 min read Schedule Assurance · 7 Jul 2026How to Review a Primavera P6 Baseline
The baseline you accept is the one you'll be measured against — and the one every future delay claim is argued from. Here's how to review one before you sign it off.
7 min read