The paper presents a literature survey of the quality of a good construction schedule. One which conforms to contractual requirements. Contractors frequently develop detailed schedules after or before contract award. They are required to submit these to the building owner or his representatives for assessment and approval. Success of a project depends, among other factors, on the quality of its schedule. The importance of assessing the goodness of schedules, poses the question: How can the schedule be assessed if it is complete and technically sound? What should be the procedure and content of such evaluation? When construction contracts require evaluation of the initial schedules by owners, frequently there are only vague and general clauses indicating the schedule to be in compliance with project scope and to have the appropriate level of detail. Rarely is there any specification indicating how the evaluation should be conducted, its procedure and content. The purpose of this research therefore is to catalogue the procedure and content of such an evaluation in preparing the Quantity Surveyor to perform this role particularly in the traditional procurement method. There are numerous publications describing the process of cost analysis. But very few comparable literature for evaluation of construction schedules is currently available. Only recently, thirty four conceptual provisions were identified from literature to criticize the initial and in-progress schedules of construction projects. This literature search describes two practical methods for evaluating the quality of the construction schedule to ensure that they conform to contractual requirements. These are the computerized system named “CRITEX” introduced for critiquing construction schedules of mid-rise commercial buildings. The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), also developed another method for initial and in-progress schedule evaluation. The paper concludes that just as the Quantity Surveyor does detail tender analysis and tender evaluation before recommending a contractor for award, now that the construction schedule may soon become a contract document in Nigeria, Quantity Surveyors should develop competencies to be able to evaluate the contractor’s schedule and recommend appropriate contractor for the award.
Keywords: Quantity Surveyors, Schedule conformance scoring, Schedule evaluation, Schedule quality
