Integrated System for Managing Owner‐Directed Project Acceleration

An integrated computerized system is described that can be used as a dispute‐resolution tool for managing owner‐directed acceleration. It can also be used as an aid for helping owners and contractors foresee the implications of accelerating a project in terms of cost and liabilities involved. The system is composed of an analysis module written in LISP as its backbone, and a knowledge base limited to related aspects in major contract forms. After obtaining the initial information from the user, the system triggers the analysis module. The analysis module generates several schedules to perform time‐impact analysis. Then, the system uses the knowledge base to assign liabilities to the parties for past events, including delayed, accelerated, added, and canceled (DAAC) activities that were not foreseen in the original schedule. It does this by means of a set of if‐then rules and certainty indices based on the responses obtained from the user. The system then incorporates this information chronologically into a compression analysis carried out again by the analysis module. The system can make a human mediator's job more effective and economical, and can also considerably reduce the occurrence of acceleration‐related disputes.