Recovery; “like from a migraine headache?”

Was there ever a time when a CPM ‘recovery schedule’ didn’t mean ‘recovery – from laughter at the implausibility of it all? To be sure, the quality and veracity among various recovery schedules has wide disparities that would surprise even the most jaded scheduler. I have presided over both extremes of recovery schedules, and many in between, as oversight, as well as publisher, and from those ‘exercises’ came to the conclusion that just about any recovery schedule isn’t worth the paper it is printed on – the epitome of the notion of ‘exercise’ -in futility.

“Recovery schedules subsist only because of the fact that there is no limit to theoretical acceleration no matter how preposterous the boast.

Why is this so? You have to go all the way back to the initial (aggressive) project criteria set by ownership and SHs to understand. A baseline that begins with untenable schedule criteria will insinuate its way into the critical path of every foregoing recovery schedule, all the way to turnover. As they say, a building erected on weak foundations cannot stand.

“Too often the message is ‘make the schedule fit,’ as opposed to ‘what is the best possible performance.

For example, a 6 year project is mobilized with a  three-year build out window: already, one foot in the grave. That’s because 50% compression simply isn’t achievable. Nonetheless; that scares away few builders, for a number of reasons – the chief one being that potential time extensions will be inevitable as a factor of designer errors and omissions, and expected change work orders.

“Everyone is familiar with the old saw about ten pounds of manure in a five-pound sack … yet they keep placing orders for it. That’s borderline Kafkaesque.

Another reason is shear braggadocio: like cocky children in denial of the limitations of their abilities, contractors routinely offer such concessions at time of tender, often with no extra resources to accomplish the superhuman feat. Perhaps the mere notion of cash-flow is enough to dispel any misgivings of a hungry contractor.

“Recovery schedule (ri-ˈkə-və-rē ske-jül , -jəl): a theory of a schedule intended to make up for lost time by reversing negative productivity trends, and minimizing lead-times, regardless of realities.

When time comes to generate a recovery schedule, this same overextended baseline is squeezed even further – yet another step further from reality. That’s because the contractor typically has no clue what he was thinking in terms of generating a three-year baseline, and knows even less about the mechanics of recovery.

“Contractors who overextend must struggle mightily to balance the schedule every month, but inevitably, the dial goes south.

This all must sound rather pessimistic, but I daresay there are some of you professionals that have experienced similar nonsense at some time in the industry? Pity the scheduler who is forced to ‘make it fit,’ or to generate recovery schedules without validation. But only contempt for the scheduler who is too ignorant to know when he is over his head, i.e., doesn’t have the sense or imperative to protest.

“Because most contractors misuse, or exclude,  cost and resource loading from their recovery schedules, there is no way to scientifically validate them.

At the opposite end of the recovery spectrum are the high functioning project controls professionals contractors rely on to give them well-researched, documented, and validated recovery schedules. They use Deltek’s vigorous EVA or EVM platforms to generate metrics and analytics.

These operators are virtually unheard of in the building industry, but thrive in other industries, such as O&P, nuclear, environmental, etc. That means the building industry is in short supply of schedulers who know how to prepare (mostly) accurate recovery schedules.

10 Best Recovery Schedule Tenets

1. It should go without saying: retain a professional CPM scheduler: your recovery schedule can only have so much integrity as its author – no less: and by all means include him in the criteria setting process.
2. Know the true costs: recovery schedules and mitigation are a slippery slope when it comes to compensability and justification. Remember that you will fail 90% of the time to meet the recovery date, and have a ‘Plan B’ always at the ready.
3. Recovery schedules must have limits of extendability or compression: this precludes the great majority of exponentially accelerated recovery schedules. For example, a ten-year contract let for a five-year compression scenario is already severely handicapped. It’s counterintuitive to think of further compression when it begins to slip.
4. Any network recovery schedule is only as auspicious as the sum of its parts. Any broken link in the chain potentially scuttles the effort. That means positive checks and balances for every accelerated activity and path.
5. Any proposed recovery effort must include the blessings of all affected: never make promises without first consulting subcontractors and vendors.
6. Ownership and stakeholders must not be permitted to mettle or insinuate themselves into the process: this is a certain recipe for catastrophe: include them out of the effort.
7. Use the opportunity to saddle mopey designers with the same onerous design deliverable requirements as the recovery dictates: imagine the designer having culpability in a given delay and held accountable for it.
8. Due diligence includes metrics and validation, such as Deltek’s Acumen Fuse and 360 platforms, which measures the integrity and likelihood for success of most any schedule or recovery file.
9. Subject the recovery network to risk workshops, where participants can create registers, and assert and assign various weights, or assessments to the plan.
10. Include a fallback plan: too many recovery schedules ‘go for broke,’ without any options once the schedule doesn’t pan out. They keep plugging away like rude mechanicals, as if there was some method or reason to their prosecution of a recovery schedule.

Finally, you can throw all Ten Best Practices out of the window if ownership and shareholders insist on unreasonable and impossible constraints, which they seem to do most of the time. Consider yourself fortunate to work for a savvy and reasonable developer or contractor, who are respectful enough to give you criteria you can work with. Anything else would be demoralizing to our craft.