Complex Projects Contract

The Complex Projects Contract is a form of construction contract, developed by the Chartered Institute of Building.

It is formally called the 'Contract for use with Complex Projects, First Edition 2013'. However, it may also be referred to as the 'Complex Projects Contract 2013' or 'CPC 2013'.

Launch

Launched on 23 April 2013, it has been billed as the world’s first contract specifically aimed at the management of time in complex construction and engineering projects. The author also states that it's the first form to follow the Society of Construction Law EOT Protocol, and that it is also the first standard form contract to cater for Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the future of collaborative design.

Purpose and Use

It is suited for works of high value or complexity, major real estate projects and engineering / infrastructure projects. It is less suited to simpler works or those of short duration, construction management / EPCM projects without amendment and inexperienced clients /contractors.

CPC 2013 is designed for use by companies and public authorities in the UK and in any other country where works comprise complex building and / or engineering, which cannot reasonably be expected to be managed intuitively. It can be used where the contractor is expected to construct only that designed by or under the direction of the client with traditional drawings, specification and / or bills of quantities, or building information modelling, or on projects which require a contractor’s design in part, or for design-build projects in which the contractor designs the whole of the works with or without an employer’s reference design.

The contract requires a collaborative approach to the management of design, quality, time and cost. The working schedule, planning method statement and progress records (which are to be inspected and accepted by a competent project time manager and independently audited for quality assurance) are at the core of management. They are the tools by which all time and time-related cost issues are to be determined and are to conform with the standards required by the conditions, appendices and the CIOB’s Guide to Good Practice in the Management of Time in Complex Projects.

Time Management

CPC2013 is unusual in taking a prescriptive approach to the management of time and cost risk and combining critical path network techniques with resource based planning. The time model, referred to as the Working Schedule, combines a high-density, short-term look-ahead similar in concept to that used in agile software development with medium- and long-term lower density schedule along the lines of that used in the waterfall model planning technique, the whole being revised regularly on the Rolling Wave planning principle. In the short-term look-ahead, the logic is to be resource- and location-related, instead of activity based, as it is in waterfall. The agile part of the schedule is to have its activity durations calculated by reference to the resources to be applied and their expected productivity.

Cost Management

The activities in the Working Schedule are also to be valued so that the Working Schedule is also used as the pricing schedule to predict out-turn cost and current value for the purposes of interim payment.

Progress Records

Progress is required to be recorded in a database identifying, at specified intervals, the resources used, productivity achieved and earned value. Apart from being the source data for subsequent progress update of the schedule, the database also serves for benchmarking productivity achievable for quality assurance of the schedule and future planning.

Collaboration

In order to promote collaboration and to ensure transparency of data, schedule and database submittals are to be made in native file format either by maintenance of the material in a common data environment or transfer by a file transfer protocol to all having a continuing design, administrative, or supervisory role.

Risk Management

Central to the philosophy of the Complex Projects Contract is its approach to transparency in risk management. CPC2013 provides for both the owner and contractor to identify their own time contingencies, which each can use as it wishes to manage its own risks. The contract defines both total float and free float and provides that if either party creates float as a result of its own improvement of progress, that party may keep the created float as its own contingency. Additional powers are provided in the CPC to enable the Owner, following consultation, to instruct acceleration, recovery and changes in resources sequences and logic in order to manage its risks contemporaneously.

Future Publications

A back-to-back consultancy appointment and subcontract, both of which follow the same principles of time and cost risk management are also due to be published in 2014.

Reception and Reviews

A number of reviews and commentaries have been written on the subject of the Complex Projects Contract, some have criticised the complexity of the contract itself, whereas others have noted the importance of the clear language, and commented on the positive incorporation of positive features reflecting other contract forms. Almost consistent in reviews published has been the comment that it will be necessary for the contract to be tested on a live project before the effectiveness can be proven.