As noted previously, construction programs in the form of CPM are
now invaluable tools for analyzing the effects of delays on progress
project completion date. The tool has also been endorsed by the
courts as evidenced by a number of court cases. For instance, in
the U.K. case of Balfour Beatty Construction Limited v. The Mayor
and Burgess of the London Borough of Lambeth (2002) 1 BLR 288,
wherein the claimant sought to enforce an adjudicator’s decision in
relation to an extension of time and loss and expense claim, the
judge stated that, “In the context of a dispute about the time for
completion a logical analysis includes the logic required for in
the establishment of a CPN (critical path network)”. Although most
construction contracts require the contractor to provide a program
at the commencement of the works, evidence from literature (for
example, Neale and Neale 1989; Owens 2003) raises questions as
to the availability and suitability of such programs for delay claims
resolutions. To ascertain the full extent of this perceived problem,
interviewees were first asked to rate the frequency by which their
organizations prepare and submit baseline programs to their employers
or their representatives for purposes of checking and subsequent
approval or acceptance, as required by most contracts.
Their responses were captured on a five-point Likert scale from
never (= 1) to always (= 5), which gave an average value of
4.07. This high ranking suggests that baseline programs are often
submitted to project employers for checking and acceptance.