The pandemic resulted in a widespread shut down of practically every industry. Most transportation system nevertheless had to remain open to move essential workers to their workplace. During the same time, transportation capital projects continued with whatever slim workforce was available. Applying the correct Project Controls model played a key role in watching those projects from a distance and ensuring the survival of the system, thus resulting in the T (MBTA) applying many changes and modifications on the fly. This keynote session will highlight how MBTA survived. 1)Introduction – 2)Schedule Management a)Periodic Progress update b)Time Impact Analysis c)Surges 3)Scope Management a)Establish a baseline b)Scope Change c)Work Directives 4)Cost Control a)Force Majeure Work b)Change order Control 5)Conclusion

We know that project controls process, procedures, and technology hold value to an organization. However, we can't assume that everyone understands the value, including the C-suite. Translating the importance of project controls through business metrics that speaks to executive priorities can be difficult. Learn about what business drivers matter and how to prove the value of project controls to your organization.

In this informative and fast-moving presentation we will discuss why an all-in-one data platform is necessary and show you how automated project controls can work together to safeguard success.

Cora provides the power of predictability to large enterprises that manage multi-year projects within high value supply chains. Cora connects complex ecosystems, streamlines processes and centralizes data providing the complete control, governance and insight required to track performance and protect margins, effortlessly. Complex organizations depend on two things. The data they use has to be permanently up to date, and accurate. And everyone who needs it has to have immediate access to it. So increasingly, they’re turning to software to organize the way they operate. Cora’s software solution makes you the ‘control tower’, centralizing all your data and integrating all your processes into the one system. So you get to seamlessly orchestrate all your activities. If, say, any parts or materials get delayed along your supply chain, you’re notified immediately thanks to the automated triggers set up to constantly monitor specific milestones. This granular visibility into every project means deviation is eliminated and waste is minimized. So everything’s delivered on schedule and budget, and revenue gets recognized now rather than later. Which improves your margins and guarantees your revenues are constantly growing.

McKinstry, like many organizations in the construction space, is facing the supply chain crisis, the affordability crisis, and labor scarcity head-on. While their business was growing, these factors led to staffing issues supporting cross-department work. To solve this business need and challenge, McKinstry went through a change management process and quickly identified the problem was primarily centered on how little visibility they had to in-flight and upcoming projects, as well as where resources were needed. McKinstry identified that a Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solution could not only support their improved process of managing resources but also support their organization in managing project financials and portfolios. Karen Firmaniuk, Product Management Director at McKinstry, joins Gilles Almeras from Planisware to share how McKinstry identified their issues, and why they decided the best fix was an end-to-end solution that included support in resource management, project financials, and overall portfolio management.

Encountering project risks and changes is inevitable, but how your organization manages these uncertainties may be the difference between profit and loss. It is not uncommon for project changes to be negotiated after the work is finished, eliminating all opportunities to explore cost savings and adding avoidable legal and administrative fees to the project. In this session, we discuss how collaborative, best-practice Change and Risk Management creates a win/win for the owners and contractors with better project results and leads to long-term, trusting relationships.

In this session, Mary Major, Senior Principal Solutions Engineer at Deltek, will present several topics related to schedule and cost integration. She will begin with an overview and will explore the impact of various scheduling techniques, including, resource loaded schedule, summary vs details, and all scope included in schedule vs partial schedule, on the cost baseline. Examples of different schedule approaches and the effort required to maintain schedule and cost integration will be presented. The schedule/cost baseline setup effort will be compared to the on-going monthly effort to help identify the “best approach for a particular program or project. Deltek Touchstone will be discussed to show how the use of it can identify schedule issues before integration into the cost baseline. Additionally, PM Compass will be discussed to show how using it can identify schedule/cost integration issues early in the monthly reporting cycle.

As projects grow larger and more complex, the need for a common data environment to enable collaboration in real time and ensure consistent application of proven best practices is increasingly important. This session will inlcude discssion of the following: * The role of the technology ecosystem in offsite project delivery * Successful construction of the Oracle Industry Lab during the pandemic * Value of CII Best Practices and their integration into a project controls platform * How Oracle Construction & Engineering’s structure supports growth of its partner network and ecosystem

Michael Pink, founder of SmartPM Technologies, Inc., has aggregated schedule data on over 1300 construction projects that have started since 2019 and will present and discuss the findings on topics related schedule quality, project performance, delay and risk management. In this presentation, Michael will discuss recommendations that can be applied to Project Controls teams based on the findings in the data.

Aegis Project Controls was hired to assist the General Contractor, RC Andersen, create and maintain a CPM schedule for the construction of a 3.8m SF Amazon Distribution Center. The plan was comprehensive and the updating process thorough. Yet, unanticipated delays occurred to steel erection which gave rise to a new steel construction sequence. Unsurprisingly this had a ripple effect across the Project and impacted the downstream subcontractors. The result was some portion of the follow-on work was done out-of-sequence, different and additional equipment was required, inefficiency occurred, and greater costs were incurred by many of the parties. Request for additional funds ensued. Through use of the properly created schedule, proper planning, and data management, Aegis was able to perform a comprehensive analysis of the various subcontractor claims and determine the steel impact on the rest of the project. This allowed for proper allocation of delay and responsibility.

Will take the audience through how ALC Field Operations was able to transition from multiple different sub par business operating tools to a transparent portfolio ecosystem. Will explain what the project portfolio risks were and how they were mitigated post Cora, and what the benefit was to incorporate Cora usage into our Standard Work. Will also take the audience through the developments we were able to accomplish with regards to customization of the platform to increase the usability for our specific project needs.

The UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Equipment & Support procurement organisation (DE&S) is responsible for the acquisition and support of Defence Equipment on behalf of the UK Armed Forces, and manages a vast range of complex projects to buy, support and supply vital equipment and services that the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force need to operate effectively. The programme of work ranges from jets and warships through to armoured vehicles and field kitchens, with an annual spend of around £13Bn. The Earned Value solution delivered by RPCuk enables greater efficiency and more integrated control of the procurement process and in this presentation, John Lister explores the challenges of working with such a large and disparate client, the development of the Earned Value solution put in place, and the benefits it is bringing to the Ministry of Defence procurement process, allowing DE&S to fully realise the planned benefits of an integrated project / portfolio management and control system.

Project Controls professionals are called upon to quantify losses in labor productivity. This can be as a part of the change order process or even in the initial stages of a dispute. The method a Project Controls professional chooses has major implications on the total estimate of loss and a poorly chosen or applied method can be detrimental to the legitimacy of a current or future claim. This presentation will focus on analyzing a real-world example of productivity loss, critiquing the method used for the loss calculation and proposing an alternative method that is more defensible during mediation and litigation proceedings. The methods to be discussed in this presentation include: • Total Cost/Modified Total Cost • Application of factors (MCAA, ACOE, etc....) • Measured Mile Analysis

This workshop discusses the 11 basic types of construction claims included in most standard contracts used throughout the U.S. – AIA, ConsensusDOCS, EJCDC, etc. The workshop outlines the entitlement and causation elements of each type of claim that the claimant must demonstrate to justify their right to prevail and recover damages. The workshop highlights the following types of construction claims – claims for directed changes; constructive changes; differing site conditions; directed suspensions of work; constructive suspensions; force majeure events; delays; accelerations; constructive accelerations; terminations for convenience; and terminations for default. The workshop also identifies several types of potential owner claims against contractors. The elements of the burden of proof required of all claimants are presented. The basic requirements concerning damages are covered. A discussion of claims under various project delivery methods and a summary of an accepted claims preparation and analysis methodology are also included in this workshop. The workshop will conclude with an outline of various dispute resolution methodologies. The workshop will also provide an overview of 25 forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that may be employed to resolve claims and avoid disputes.

Technology is disrupting Project Management. Roles next year will be different than roles today. Understand what change is happening, what it means for you and how you can benefit. Be able to pre-empt change by learning how technology is being applied. See the latest Project Management technology being deployed on the world’s projects. Get ahead of the curve.

Subhash will present a keynote on ‘Data Cataloging and Advanced Data Analytics.’ Data analytics has always been an important part of project controls. Since the popularity of distributed data sources, the scale and quality of accessible data have grown. Subhash will discuss data analytics strategy, where insights can be extracted from larger datasets at scale. Subhash will offer his insights on a data model and developing a data catalog.

Planners & schedulers often avoid cost-loading their schedules because they simply don't know how to make it work. In this presentation, we'll discuss cost-loading benefits and disadvantages and understand how the current environment is demanding these skills from P6 schedulers. I'll then demonstrate a unique & proven process for cost-loading in P6 from lump sum or fixed-bid contracts, including advanced techniques for cost-loading to ensure we match your cost estimate to the dollar. We'll also demonstrate how to setup a project to get ready for Earned Value tracking during execution.

Often when a project starts predicting late completion and the reasons for prolonging the project completion date share potential mixed responsibility between the owner and the contractor, schedule updates are missed, and the atmosphere turns adversarial. These missing updates may not be seen as very important or the contractor may believe they will recover the lost time before the next update, but missing updates is often the first sign of a project that will end in a disaster. This session will provide proven solutions to this quandary and help bring this type of project back to a collaborative effort where the team is actively mitigating delays and agreeing on appropriate extensions of time.

Project schedules often have factors imposed on them which degrade them as tools for quantitative schedule risk analysis using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). The contractor’s detailed proposal schedules frequently employ mechanisms encompassing commercial goals, rendering them unsuitable for use in quantitative risk modeling. A good bit of effort is typically required to convert these schedules into reliable tools for risk modeling. This paper describes these problems and develops processes for identifying them and repairing them to withstand the rigors of simulation. It discusses why such findings often lead to creating summary schedules that strictly adhere to best practices while representing the overall project plan rather than de-bugging the contractor’s detailed schedule. Using standards for critical path method (CPM) scheduling implies that what is needed to support MCS is to follow best practice CPM guidelines. Some of those guidelines have pronounced impacts on the conduct of MCS-based schedule risk analysis. This paper highlights and explains these practices and argues that the best way to proceed with a schedule risk analysis is to create a simpler, smaller, but entirely compliant summary schedule rather than simulate the project’s detailed schedule with its flaws.

In this presentation Rob & Russell will discuss the different ways to measure project success. They will cover the emerging impact of carbon on the construction industry and key challenges of measurement, reporting and governance around decarbonization on a grand scale. Over the next 40 years, the world is expected to build 2 trillion square feet of new construction which is like adding the equivalent of Paris to the planet every single week. Join us to learn what we as a project controls community can start doing to track our projects carbon footprint and comply with new regulations and standards around sustainability.

Competitively tendered fixed price contracts often lead to contractors / non-owner participants making heroic assumptions on risks they cannot control and are often asked to accept, even on the most complex mega-projects. This invariably results in parties subsequently trying to mitigate some of these initial losses through scope changes and variation claims, in an effort to remain financially viable. An increasing number of such experiences have led to the exploration and adoption of alternative and collaborative contracting models. After spending 13+ years in the US, Nikhil had the opportunity to get involved with a few Alliances (a collaborative contracting model where the parties share pain/gain on ultimate project performance to achieve best for project outcomes) in New Zealand. In his presentation, Nikhil will aim to share some of the challenges / learnings from his experiences in navigating delay and disruption issues on such collaborative contracting models and overall learnings around what worked well, what didn't when working through some of these complex issues.

Construction projects are under increasing pressure from local communities to deliver Societal Value (SV), defined as integrated social and environmental value. Societal Value delivery requires the co-creation of value outcomes with environmental and community stakeholders, in addition to the functional benefits of the project. The aim of this research is to advance understanding of the conceptualisation and practise of Societal Value in capital projects. This paper will summarise existing research and key concepts in the delivery of Societal Value, applying examples from both existing and planned radio astronomy projects such as the Very Large Array (VLA, USA) and Next-Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA, USA), Square Kilometre Array (SKA, South Africa and Australia), Arecibo (NAIC, Puerto Rico), Ghana Radio Telescope Observatory, and Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA, Chile). Such projects are built in rural areas, bringing services, infrastructure, jobs, education, and astrotourism to surrounding communities. Answering these research questions can lead to the development of a societal value framework for construction projects, including metrics and an audit methodology, for use by organisations and governments in practising project assurance.

It’s common knowledge that the majority of large-scale construction projects finish late and over-budget, and that this has been a problem for decades (even centuries). What is less well known is that this problem, which weighs heavily on business cases for large infrastructure, building and energy projects, has its roots in cognitive biases including optimism bias, availability bias, and salience bias. But while these biases affect all project professionals to some degree, the development of new technologies for project controls teams means that their impact on the destiny of large capital projects is no longer inevitable. In this mind-expanding talk for Project Controls Expo USA 2022, Wan Li Zhu, MD of Suffolk’s VC division, will unravel the data we have on the impact of cognitive biases on project outcomes, and share how Suffolk has used new AI-based technologies to counter these biases during the building of a new hospital and a new hospitality complex. He’ll by joined by Dev Amratia, CEO, who’ll take a deep dive into what AI risk management and forecasting can and can’t do, how it works, and what it means for the future of project controls. See you there!

The construction sector has a clear responsibility to prove and improve its carbon footprint. Join Alex to hear about innovation within the cost & carbon estimating space that will help the industry meet this challenge.

A public organization asked the author and his consultant team to provide schedule review support and to improve the scheduling management procedure. This is a change at organization level moving towards proactive management and control, which requires good planning, effective communication, and vigorous implementation. The task involves lots of challenges such as how to fit into an organization, how to identify areas for improvement, how to develop new schedule review and monitoring procedures, and how to implement each of those. As a result of strong support from senior management, good planning, and hard teamwork, the new schedule review and monitoring process has reduced the schedule review duration, improved the quality of schedule updates, made it possible for the first time to maintain contemporaneous schedules for all projects, and recovered the project delays. The project managers in the public organization developed the trust in the scheduling and begin actively using the new process to manage their projects. This paper shared the challenges, solutions, outcomes, and lessons learned from this task.

This paper will provide the roadmap of a project control engineer from hiring to graduation as a specialist employee in project controls. The paper will start demonstrating the graduate engineer development in PDO, set of skills needed, formal training courses, self-study and ongoing research, and Regular assessment of skills and will end by concluding the importance of projects services young professional development.

Talent availability is the primary impediment to strategy execution. Quickly and effectively aligning strategic demand with available people and teams can win business and protect margins. In today’s unstable labor market organizations must balance outcome delivery with talent retention as they seek to execute strategy and adapt to changing business conditions. Resource Portfolio Management enhances best resource planning practices from Scaled Agile and waterfall methodologies, to improve strategic portfolio delivery, adaptability, and talent retention. In this session we will discuss how to:

1. Quickly adapt strategic delivery to changing business conditions without burning out your talent
2. Optimize strategic delivery across all delivery methodologies, initiatives, teams, & people
3. Analyze the impact of strategic options on delivery, talent retention, financials, & other constraints
4. Identify & mitigate delivery & talent risks early
5. Use lightweight process & governance to sustain both predictable and adaptive delivery.

In this presentation, we highlight the significant advantages of the recent advancement of digital data and centralized solutions in the realm of Program Controls. We are clarifying that data alone is no silver bullet and does not provide the maximum insights to decision-makers. This is not only due to the lack of analytic tools but also the lack of data alignment. The integrated solution seeks to glean intelligence from data flexibly and efficiently and translate that into data-driven decisions that enable successful delivery. The main philosophy is to create harmonization for more actionable data. We are shifting away from connecting a variety of systems to create PMIS that relies on individual capabilities to implementing a single source of truth. The Controls Engine relies on data alignment and leverages the wealth of data to ensure successful delivery and realization of benefits. That involves the combination of data throughout the program's lifecycle and cross-functional by tying up contract, project, and program levels. Integrating all aspects of controls enables decisions to be made with a view of the overall picture, not just the traditional aspects of schedule and cost.

Today, collecting and monitering data has become the new mine; since without it, businesses cannot keep steady or sustained operations. One of these uses is the construction industry that uses data and compiles it into different functions, thus many projects build behind schedule, lack quality and efficiency, and are full of poor decisions. Data standardization and integration becomes mandatory for any What a successful project, especially when Data Analytics and insights’ benefits are maximised through streamlined operations using a business intelligence feature integrated with a built-in methodology digital construction. Construction projects are always using spreadsheets and have proven their effectiveness and usability. However, large amounts of bulk data cannot be handled and integrated with platforms such as PMIS, ERP, digital building platforms, and many others. In this article, the importance of integrating Business Intelligence with construction data - BIM models in particular- will be discussed to better understand projects and enable decision makers to quickly make decisions based on data-driven processes. whether it is based on conjecture and personal opinion

Many recent studies showed that project delays are mostly attributed to the delay and non-quality of engineering deliverables. Project teams rely heavily on earned value measurements (EVM) when it comes to track project progress against the baseline. This paper/presentation challenges the use of EVM compared to underused project data. Projects always have a lot of data that can be used for project tracking. Data analyses that are right for the situation represent tools that are easier and more effective than EVM. Only one example will be given here about the use of document flow data. Document management tools and software contain a wealth of data that can be used at various phases of a project to support the measurements of engineering progress and performance. Data fields in the tools which specifically store actual dates, revision status, type of deliverables, etc. can be used to validate reporting metrics defined for engineering. Utilizing this information creates the knowledge base to make informative decisions for engineering interface with procurement, construction, and commissioning. It also improves project forecasting and substantiates collection points needed to meet critical milestones. This paper demonstrates the concepts of data collection through document workflow and how to convert that into progress metrics that contribute to non-traditional performance metrics. For example, a progress metric such as the average time needed to move a document from status “A” to status “B” will validate the progress value calculated using rules of credit. The author will present multiple non-traditional metrics and trends to make use of data contained within document management tools to improve the reliability of traditional progress and performance metrics. These trends will support the project forecast related to engineering deliverables.

The implementation of blockchain in construction appears to be reaching the peak of the hype cycle. Its benefits are described as having the potential to create a sea change in traditional processes bringing dramatic gains in execution efficiency, trust among parties, and payment speed. However, the potential benefits are largely based on broad assumptions, industry surveys, and small trial projects. The technology has not yet crossed the chasm to broad adoption. Hype will decline as significant challenges must be addressed before pragmatic industry leaders with significant risk exposure can adopt the technology on a broad scale. Still, the industry must seek to optimize project execution. In this presentation the speakers review the state of the art of blockchain and smart contracts, evaluate four major use cases, and evaluate blockchain as a fit-for-purpose solution in each case. The use cases include discussion of a real-world implementation on a refinery megaproject in Latin America. After that, the speakers will show conclusions, regarding what will be required to transition from academic to broad practical implementation of blockchain in the construction sector.

Endorsed by the World Bank, the use of FIDIC contract terms is expanding worldwide – alongside other contract forms, such as NEC4 and JCT – and is increasingly mandatory on US Government contracts. In addition, proof of governance and compliance with Government environmental and social requirements (ESG) is often a requirement for public funding. Ensuring compliance with these terms on a multi-faceted project can be a complex process, involving multiple changes throughout the project’s lifecycle and continuous liaison with cost management, scheduling and reporting. Contract management software solutions help to simplify the task through automation and integration of systems, increasing productivity and minimising time and money lost to disputes. In particular, cloud-based solutions are a powerful tool in driving collaborative working, and are key to ensuring that business decisions are based on the most up-to-date data and that you are always communicating the right information to the right people at the right time. In this presentation, contract management specialist Nathan Lambert, explores how innovations in software solutions are helping to ease the administrative burden and take the pain out of governance and compliance in contract management.

Timely and reliable project controls data is crucial to diagnose the project's current status, predict the project's future performance, and manage risks that could impact overall business objectives. However, traditional project controls practices, tools, and techniques are not standardized, sophisticated, consistent, objective, synthesized, or connected enough to support project management in its entirety. With increasing complexity and resource constraints, projects need to have comprehensive and reliable project controls. The negative impact of project complexity and risks on schedule, cost, quality, and safety can be effectively and efficiently managed only by implementing multi-dimensional, design-centric, and data-driven project controls approaches such as digital twin (DT). DT is a promising project controls approach where a real-time virtual replica of a physical structure functions as a single-source-of-truth. It helps establish a plan, monitor and control progress, and communicate a plethora project statuses and forecasts with stakeholders. However, incorporating DT into existing project controls practices does not guarantee successful implementation unless the practices meet critical success criteria. This paper reviews opportunities and future trends for project controls with digital twin and advanced technologies.

The Port Authority of NY & NJ is amid a three-year Digital Transformation Program, with the overall objective of connecting the sum of its parts to not just deliver world class service but reimagine the workplace of the future. Our DT Program has four strategic themes: 1) Digitization and automation 2) Controlling our projects 3) Improving working relationships and 4) A culture of continuous improvement. We will address some of the work we have been delivering, and focus specifically on our DT vision, and how that will transform the use of program and project controls, making it a cornerstone to the delivery of our capital plan.