Require a schedule health report with each contractor submittal

If you own a capital programme or a construction project, you probably ask each contractor for a schedule at the start and an update every month. The free schedule submittal clause kit gives you specification wording for that, so every submittal arrives with a schedule health report you can read in minutes instead of opening the file yourself.

Download it from either page on onplana.com, no account needed:

• Construction scheduling
• Capital programmes

The kit comes as a Word file (schedule-submittal-specification-clauses.docx) and as Markdown (schedule-submittal-specification-clauses.md).

What the clauses ask for

Clause	What it asks
1. Definitions	What a Schedule, a status date and a schedule health report are.
2. Baseline schedule	A logically linked baseline within a set number of days of the notice to proceed, with the native file, a narrative and a health report.
3. Schedule updates	An update every reporting period, with the native file, a narrative of progress and changes, and a health report.
4. Schedule quality checks	The 14 checks of the DCMA 14-point assessment, each with its threshold, and an explanation for every check that is not met.
5. Schedule health report	A report attached to each submittal, naming the file it was run on, its status date and the date it was produced.
6. Review	You may return a submittal with no report, or with a report run on a different file.

The thresholds in clause 4 are the ones the free Schedule Health Check applies, for example at most 5% of open tasks missing a predecessor or successor, no negative float, and at least 90% finish-to-start relationships.

Note

The clauses name a method, the DCMA 14-point assessment, not a product. A report from the free Schedule Health Check meets clause 5, and so does a report from any other tool that applies the same checks and thresholds and reports each check separately. Your contractors can comply at no cost.

Put the clauses into your specification

1. Download the Word file and open it next to your scheduling specification.

2. Edit the bracketed values to suit your contract: the days allowed for the baseline, the reporting period and how recent the status date must be.

3. Paste the clauses into your specification, renumbering them to fit.

4. Have your counsel review the wording against your form of contract. The kit is sample wording, not legal advice.

How a contractor produces the report

A contractor uploads the schedule file (.mpp or MSPDI .xml) to the free Schedule Health Check, then exports the report as a PDF and attaches it to the submittal. Reading the report is covered in Read your Schedule Health Check.

Checks 11, 13 and 14 (missed tasks, CPLI and BEI) compare progress against a baseline, so the clauses apply them from the first update after the baseline is accepted.

Reviewing many submittals

If you review contractor schedules across several projects, use the Contractor schedule submittals button on either page to tell us how you work today.