Construction Delays and Other Claims - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 355

8. Correspondence with the owner, architect/engineer, subcontractors, ven-
dors and suppliers, or other contracting parties. The record must include
the topic of the communication, the person with whom the project manager
(or the project manager's staff) communicated, and the date of the commu-
nication.
9. Correspondence with the home office.
10. Meeting minutes, including the typical information recorded in any meeting's
minutes (subject, date, location of meeting, names of people attending and
absent people, etc.).
11. Procurement records, including materials and equipment orders and delivery
tickets, equipment maintenance records, any quotations for materials; labor;
or other receipts for any purchases or payments, and any other record that
deals with acquisition of labor, materials, or equipment.
12. Government records, such as permits, code nonconformance reports, and
forms/citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA).
13. A record of payments (owner to general contractor and general contractor
to subcontractors and vendors), along with the total amount billed, the total
amount paid, retainage, and other financial details. The general contractor
must also keep lien releases signed by subcontractors (the owner would keep
lien releases signed by the general contractor).
14. It is a good idea for the resident project manager to keep a camera on hand to
take photos for important events. Any picture must have the date printed on
its back or front. Digital cameras are very effective because the picture can be
downloaded to a computer and then attached to a document or to the project
management software. Some Web sites have security cameras and recordings
that are kept by the security company or IT department for a limited period
of time, since it is impractical to store thousands of hours of recordings. The
project manager should permanently store any video clips showing important
events that may support a case in court later on.
15. E-mails, electronic schedules, electronic submittals, project databases, and
similar electronic data in its native format.
The cost estimate may belong to a different department, but the scheduler and
the scheduling department must have a copy of the baseline cost estimate as well as
all cost estimate updates.
With a good documentation system, the project management team can store the
information in a well-organized fashion so that it is efficient and easy to retrieve. One
major challenge to anyone asserting a delay claim is to retrieve all of the information in
an accurate manner and then re-create past events in their correct sequence. Keeping
good records helps refresh the memory of any party involved, which not only will help
in case of a dispute but also will help prevent such a dispute from emerging. A work