Course overview
Change orders and contractual claims determine whether project teams recover the time and money caused by changed scope, late information, restricted access, disruption, defective employer inputs and other events outside their agreed obligations. Poor notice discipline, incomplete records and weak cause-and-effect analysis can turn a valid entitlement into an unrecoverable cost. Conversely, poorly assessed contractor submissions can expose employers to avoidable payments, programme extensions and disputes.
This course develops the practical controls required to manage changes from instruction through valuation, time assessment, negotiation and close-out. Participants examine contract administration under common approaches such as FIDIC and NEC4, with attention to notice clauses, early warnings, compensation events, variations, extension-of-time claims, disruption claims and concurrent delay. They learn to read operative clauses, establish contractual entitlement, build contemporaneous records, price changed work, analyse delay and prepare defensible claim or response documents.
Teaching combines focused briefings with construction, infrastructure, engineering and procurement cases. Participants work through contract extracts, correspondence, programme updates, site records, change registers and cost data. They prepare parts of a live-style change and claims file, review submissions from both employer and contractor viewpoints, and practise structured settlement discussions. Each participant leaves with a reusable change-control and claims-management pack containing registers, notice tools, evidence plans, assessment templates and a completed claim or response dossier.
The course suits professionals who administer, supervise, procure or deliver projects with formal contracts. It is particularly relevant where project work involves design development, regulated procurement, complex interfaces, uncertain site conditions, programme pressure or multiple subcontractors.
