Consequently, the need to address relevant programming issues
has long been recognized as being pivotal to both delay claims dispute
prevention and dispute resolution (Pinnell 1992; SCL 2002;
Pickavance 2005). Yet, very little research has been done on programming
matters to help establish better understanding of the key
issues and their influence on delay claims resolutions. The vast
majority of past research studies have rather focused on the methodologies
for analyzing delays—see for example, the work of
Bordoli and Baldwin (1998), Finke (1999), Williams et al. (2003),
Hegazy and Zhang (2005), Al-Gahtani and Mohan (2005), and Ibbs
and Nguyen (2007). As a contribution toward building such understanding,
this paper reports on aspects of a study conducted to shed
light on construction programming practice within the U.K. construction
industry with the view to identifying the key issues that
influence delay claims assessment. The issues investigated and reported
in this paper include:
• What tools (and in which formats) are used for developing baseline
program during the preconstruction stage of a project?
• What are the main deliverables produced during the preconstruction
programming stage of projects?
• Who are the experts involved in program development, and
what is the extent of their involvement?
• To what extent are baseline programs resource-loaded and/or
leveled?
The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. The next
section presents a brief overview of delay analysis techniques
and their relationship with construction programs, as a way of setting
out the theoretical basis of the role programming practice plays
in delay analysis. The next section describes the research methodology
used in conducting the study, followed by analysis and discussion
of the study results. The final section presents a summary
of the study findings and conclusions.