Project Lifecycle Checklist for Senior Practitioners

A checklist for NEC4 ECC jobs, stage by stage, with the clause behind each item. Built from what we see go wrong.

1. Before the first programme goes in

First programme submitted within the period stated in the Contract Data (31.1). If no programme is identified in the Contract Data, 1/4 of the Price for Work Done to Date is retained until a first programme showing the required information is submitted for acceptance (50.5).
Every 31.2 item shown: starting date, access dates, Key Dates and Completion Date, planned Completion, the work of the Client and Others, float, time risk allowances, health and safety requirements, contract procedures, and the dates access, acceptances, Plant and Materials and information are needed.
For Options A and C, the Activity Schedule linked to the programme operations (31.4).
No compensation events in it. A first programme shows the Contractor’s plan for the contract as let.
Records set up from day one: event log, notification register, dated P6 baselines.

Revised programmes at the interval in the Contract Data, or when instructed (32.2), showing actual progress, its effect on the remaining work, and how delays will be dealt with (32.1).
Early warnings notified as soon as the risk is known (15.1).
Compensation events notified within 8 weeks of becoming aware (61.3).
Project Manager replies chased: 1 week on a notification (61.4), 2 weeks on a quotation (62.3). Silence can become deemed acceptance once the failure is notified (61.4, 62.6).
Quotations in within 3 weeks, with the alterations to the Accepted Programme where the remaining work changes (62.2, 62.3).
Near-critical paths watched as closely as the critical one.

Delay measured against planned Completion on the Accepted Programme current at the dividing date (63.5).
Only operations not yet completed and affected by the event are changed (63.5).
Risk allowances included for matters with a significant chance of occurring that are not compensation events (63.8).

Completion as defined in 11.2(2), against the work set out in the Scope. The Project Manager certifies it within 1 week of the date (30.2).
No compensation event can be notified after the Defects Certificate is issued (61.7). Clear the register well before the defects date.
As-built programme checked against site diaries and photos while the people who were there can still confirm it.