Select the delay analysis method appropriate to the available programme records and the dispute in question.
Law & Contract Management
Forensic Delay Analysis and Concurrent Delay in Extension of Time Claims
Trains claims and planning professionals to conduct forensic delay analysis, identify concurrent delay and prepare extension of time claims that withstand scrutiny.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
The same set of delay events on the same project can support opposite conclusions about who caused the overrun, because the method chosen to analyse delay often decides the answer before the facts are even weighed. This course trains participants to select and apply the forensic delay analysis method that fits the available records and the question being asked, and to defend that choice under cross-examination. Participants work through critical path method fundamentals, time impact analysis conducted prospectively as events occur, and retrospective methods including windows analysis, collapsed as-built and as-planned versus as-built comparison, learning the data each method demands and the distortions each is prone to. Concurrent delay receives close attention: how it is defined, how the SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol approaches it, and how courts and tribunals in different jurisdictions treat a contractor's entitlement to time and money when employer and contractor delay run together. Later sessions cover float ownership, the interaction between extension of time and loss and expense claims, and how to test an opponent's delay analysis for programme logic errors and unsupported assumptions. Delegates build a delay analysis on a realistic project dataset and present findings as an expert would in a claim or adjudication.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Apply critical path method principles to identify the activities actually driving project completion.
Conduct a time impact analysis that models the prospective effect of a delay event on planned completion.
Distinguish concurrent delay from sequential or pacing delay using the tests set out in leading guidance.
Apply the SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol's approach to concurrency and its effect on time and cost entitlement.
Test an opponent's delay analysis for programme logic errors, unsupported linkages and selective data use.
Present delay analysis findings clearly in an extension of time claim, expert report or adjudication referral.
Who Should Attend
Planning engineers and delay analysts preparing extension of time and disruption claims
Construction lawyers advising on entitlement to time and associated loss and expense
Contract managers and quantity surveyors compiling extension of time submissions on live projects
Expert witnesses instructed to analyse delay and concurrency in arbitration or litigation
Employer's representatives and project managers assessing contractor delay claims
Dispute resolution professionals handling adjudication, arbitration or litigation on delay
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Foundations of Programme and Delay Analysis
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Critical Path Method and Programme Baselines
- Identify the critical path within a project programme and distinguish it from paths carrying float.
- Assess the quality of a baseline programme, including logic links, constraints and resourcing assumptions.
- Distinguish free float and total float and explain who owns float under common contract forms and case law.
- Audit programme updates for retrospective logic changes that distort the picture of what actually happened.
Session 2Choosing a Delay Analysis Method
- Compare prospective and retrospective delay analysis methods against the records each one requires to be reliable.
- Select between time impact analysis, windows analysis and collapsed as-built based on data availability and cost.
- Assess as-planned versus as-built comparison as a simple but limited method for straightforward disputes.
- Match the chosen method to the forum, whether adjudication, arbitration or litigation, and its time constraints.
02Conducting the Analysis
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Time Impact Analysis in Practice
- Insert delay events into an updated programme model to measure their prospective effect on the completion date.
- Select accurate programme update points that reflect genuine progress rather than administrative convenience.
- Model the effect of mitigation measures and acceleration on the results of a time impact analysis.
- Document assumptions transparently so the analysis can be tested and, if necessary, defended in cross-examination.
Session 2Windows and As-Built Analysis
- Divide the project timeline into analysis windows and attribute critical delay within each window to its cause.
- Build a collapsed as-built analysis by removing delay events from the as-built programme to isolate their effect.
- Reconcile conflicting results between different retrospective methods applied to the same delay events.
- Identify data gaps, such as missing progress records, that force reliance on assumption rather than fact.
03Concurrent Delay
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Defining and Identifying Concurrency
- Apply recognised tests for true concurrency, including the requirement for two genuinely competing critical causes.
- Distinguish concurrent delay from sequential delay and from pacing delay adopted deliberately by a contractor.
- Assess how the SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol's guidance on concurrency applies to a disputed set of facts.
- Compare differing judicial and contractual approaches to concurrency across common law and civil law jurisdictions.
Session 2Concurrency's Effect on Time and Money
- Assess entitlement to an extension of time where employer and contractor delay run concurrently on the critical path.
- Apply contractual apportionment clauses where the underlying contract departs from the general legal position.
- Separate the time consequence of concurrent delay from the associated loss and expense entitlement, where they differ.
- Advise contractors and employers on record-keeping that supports or defeats a concurrency argument later raised.
04Extension of Time Claims and Expert Evidence
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Preparing an Extension of Time Submission
- Structure an extension of time submission linking each delay event to its programme impact and contractual basis.
- Support entitlement with contemporaneous records, including site diaries, minutes and instruction correspondence.
- Address notice provisions and condition precedent clauses that can bar an otherwise valid extension of time claim.
- Quantify associated prolongation costs consistently with the extension of time period being claimed.
Session 2Testing and Presenting Delay Evidence
- Cross-examine an opponent's delay expert on programme logic, method selection and unsupported assumptions.
- Prepare an expert witness to present delay analysis clearly to a tribunal unfamiliar with planning software.
- Use joint expert statements to narrow areas of disagreement on method and factual delay causation before a hearing.
- Advise on settlement prospects once delay analysis has clarified genuine entitlement versus contested claims.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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