Delay Records: What to Capture While the Facts Are Still Clear

A programme may show that a milestone moved without explaining the event behind the movement. Months later, the team is left trying to reconstruct who knew what, which work was affected and what could reasonably have happened instead.

Contemporaneous records make that reconstruction more reliable. They also help current management: a clearly recorded constraint can be investigated and resolved while it is still affecting delivery.

Separate the event from its alleged effect

Record what happened, where, when and how it was observed. Keep the factual description distinct from the initial assessment of programme impact. A late drawing is an event; a delay to project completion requires an analysis of the affected work and the programme position at the relevant time.

Avoid treating every local disruption as an equal movement of the final milestone. Available float, parallel paths, alternative work, subsequent events and actual progress can affect the result. The record should preserve the evidence needed to assess these matters, not announce a conclusion before the analysis.

Use a consistent event record

Retain native programme files as well as readable reports. Record data dates, issue dates and revisions. A PDF is helpful for understanding what was reported; the native file may be needed to examine relationships and calculation behaviour.

Describe the work that was actually prevented

Illustrative scenario: a revised containment detail is issued late. A useful record identifies the corridor and installation activity, the information previously available, the question requiring resolution, and the work that could or could not proceed. It records the crew’s actual deployment and any alternative work undertaken.

“Design delay affected electrical works” is too broad to test. A precise record allows the planner to assess the event against the sequence and the actual site position, without assuming that every electrical activity was stopped.

Preserve the audit trail

Store records in the agreed project system with consistent references. Preserve original issue dates and earlier revisions rather than overwriting them with the latest account. Make photographs useful by recording their date, location and subject; an image without context is much harder to relate to a programme activity.

Record uncertainty openly. If the start date of an effect is not yet established, say so and identify the evidence being sought. Later clarification should be an identifiable update, not an invisible edit to an earlier record.

A short weekly review

• Which new events affected planned or ongoing work?
• Have the affected activity, location and system references been identified?
• Are programme files and supporting records preserved?
• What alternative work or mitigation was considered?
• Which factual gaps need to be resolved while the team still remembers them?

Discuss notice requirements with the contract administrator or appropriate adviser. Required recipients, content and time limits depend on the contract and applicable law. Maintaining an internal event register is not a substitute for serving a required notice.

This article concerns planning records, not legal advice or a prescribed delay-analysis method. The appropriate analysis depends on the question, available evidence and contractual context. Better records help that assessment remain grounded in what happened rather than what is remembered later.

Further reading: the Society of Construction Law Delay and Disruption Protocol discusses transparent information and methodology. Apply any guidance in the context of the relevant contract and jurisdiction.