A project review is sometimes conducted to determine the causes of cost or time overruns, excessive change orders or contractor claims, or other issues which lead to unsatisfactory results in construction projects. This information may also prove helpful in structuring projects from the outset. Listed below are the five areas which The Butler Group reviews. Sample checklist that TBG (The Butler Group) uses while conducting such reviews can be found by clicking on the area of interest.

Budget/Estimating Checklist

• Was a project budget established?
• Was it available to all team members?
• Was the project contingency amount adequate for change order needs?
• Were A/E estimates done for each stage of design?
• Were A/E estimates reviewed for budget compatibility?
• If there were issues of budget non-compliance, were measures taken to achieve compliance?
• Was the owner aware of the budget status?

• Was a master schedule developed for the construction program?
• Was a project schedule developed for each project? By Whom?
• Were monthly schedule updates received?
• Was the project schedule reviewed and updated? How Often?
• Was the project on schedule? If not, what actions were taken to correct?
• Was the schedule status documented on a monthly basis?
• Were comments returned to the contractor on the updated schedule submittal?
• Were progress payments integrated with the schedule?
• Were time extension requests analyzed against the project schedules?
• How many delay days were requested? How many were granted?
• Were short-interval schedules submitted by the contractors?

Contract Administration Checklist

• Were frequent job site meetings held?
• Were minutes taken and published?
• Were procedures for handling incoming and outgoing correspondence, logging, filing and distribution established and followed?
• Were submittals/substitutions logged and tracked?
• How were substitutions identified and dealt with?
• Was a procedure for review of RFI's established?
• Were responses to contractors timely?
• Were RFIs logged and tracked?
• What actions were taken on delayed RFIs?
• Were reports on project status produced a distributed regularly?
• Was the frequency and format of reporting to owner, in any format, adequate?
• What kind of information was forwarded to the owner?
• what level of decision was deferred to the owner?