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ARC PPE: Project Management: Delivery, Schedule, and Change Control

ARC PPE · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Project Management: Delivery, Schedule, and Change Control

This domain tests how a project is scoped, scheduled, budgeted, procured, and controlled from kickoff to closeout, and how the chosen delivery method and contract type allocate risk among owner, architect, and contractor.

Delivery methods and compensation

  • Design-bid-build: the owner holds separate contracts; award goes to the lowest responsive, responsible bidder; the architect administers the construction contract.
  • Design-build and CM-at-risk with a guaranteed maximum price shift coordination risk to a single entity; multiple-prime contracts put coordination back on the owner.
  • Contract types: stipulated (lump) sum, cost plus a fee, cost plus GMP with shared savings, unit price, and time and materials for undefined extra work.

Schedule control

  • Critical path method: forward pass for early dates, backward pass for late dates. Total float = late start − early start. Free float is the delay an activity can absorb without moving its successor.
  • The critical path has zero total float. In most contracts, float belongs to the project, not to one party; check language about who may consume it.
  • Long-lead procurement (switchgear, elevators, curtain wall) often drives completion more than drawing production does.

Change control instruments

An addendum is issued before bids and changes the bid documents. An RFI asks a question. An ASI clarifies without changing cost or time. A change order modifies the contract after execution.

Worked example

Activities: A (5 days) precedes B (6) and C (3); both B and C precede D (2). Path A-B-D finishes on day 13; A-C-D finishes on day 10. The critical path is A-B-D, and C has 3 days of total float. Delaying C by 3 days does not move completion; delaying it 4 days pushes the project to day 14. Crashing B by 2 days shortens the project to 11 days; crashing C by 2 days changes nothing.

Traps that cost marks

  • Confusing free float with total float on non-critical activities.
  • Assuming the fastest schedule is the cheapest; acceleration costs money and can create a constructive acceleration claim.
  • Treating an RFI answer as automatic entitlement to extra time or money.