A programme of works the site can follow and the contract can rely on
Updated: Oct 18
By Roman Bazelchuk | NEC Accredited Project Manager | APMG Project Planning and Control
Founder, NEC Planning Solutions Ltd
The request is usually one line in a tender pack or a contract: provide a programme of works. On a civil and M&E job, the one I was handed was just bars drawn to dates. At the first delay, the compensation event could not be put into the programme, because there was no coherent logic path to carry it. The project manager questioned the event, and was contractually right to. The event had to be measured against the programme in force, and that programme had no critical path. Building one afterwards, to suit the event, would not have changed that. The claim for time was rejected, although on site the event had genuinely held up the critical work.
A programme of works, also called a construction programme, is the time plan for a construction project. It lists every activity needed to complete the works, gives each a duration, links them in the order the work must follow and calculates the resulting dates, including the finish date and the critical path that drives it.
The client asks for one at tender, the contract asks for one after award and the site team is meant to work from it every week. JCT calls the contract version the master programme, NEC4 the Accepted Programme and FIDIC the Programme. The name changes from form to form. The job does not: show how the works will be built, and show what happens to the finish when something moves.
This guide sets out what a programme of works must show, the types of construction programme a project runs through, how to read one, what the site needs from it and what JCT, NEC4 and FIDIC ask of it.
What a programme of works must show
Contracts word it differently, and some ask for almost nothing, but a programme that will survive its first change carries seven things.
Activities someone can be held to
Each activity is a piece of work with a clear start and a clear finish that one team can be held to, such as pouring the level 2 slab rather than building the frame. Durations need a basis, such as quantities, output rates and the crew. The Society of Construction Law's Delay and Disruption Protocol suggests no activity other than a summary should run longer than 28 days, which is a fair test of whether progress can be measured at all.
Logic between the activities
Every activity is tied to the work that has to finish before it can start, and to the work that cannot start until it is done. Most links are finish-to-start. Start-to-start and finish-to-finish links, with a lag only where the physical process needs one, model work that overlaps. Forecast dates are calculated from these links, the durations and the calendars, not typed in. Where a date really is fixed, such as an access date, it goes in as a constraint the reviewer can see, with the reason for it.
The critical path and the float
The critical path is the longest chain of linked activities through the job, the chain that sets the finish date. Activities off the critical path usually have float: time they can lose before they delay the finish. A programme that shows both tells the team where a day matters and where it does not.
The dates the contract and the client set
Start, completion, sectional completion, key dates, access dates and the dates the client has to provide information or approvals all belong on the programme as milestones, tied into the logic. Under NEC4, clause 31.2 requires these dates to be shown, and a programme that leaves them out can be refused under clause 31.3 for not showing the information the contract requires.
Calendars that match the work
Site work, offsite manufacture and design reviews run on different working weeks, holidays and weather allowances. A programme run on one default calendar misstates delay wherever the real working pattern differs from it: weekend working, holidays, a shutdown. The guide to Primavera P6 for NEC programmes covers calendars and the other settings that decide what a programme will say.
Design, procurement and approvals in the logic
Long-lead items, design packages and the approvals each one needs are activities with durations and links like any other. A programme that keeps procurement in a separate spreadsheet cannot show that a late switchboard order, rather than the site, is driving completion.
A narrative that explains it
The narrative states the method, the sequence, the assumptions, the critical path in words and the risks the programme allows for. It is the reviewer's guide to the programme, and a programme without one invites the questions it would have answered. The programme narrative article sets out what a strong one covers.
Drawn or built: why bars without logic are not a programme
Many programmes of works that reach a client are bar charts with no logic behind them. Some are drawn in Excel or PowerPoint; others are typed into scheduling software with every date entered by hand. On paper they look like a programme built from logic. The first time something moves, they behave differently.
Figure 1 shows the same five activities both ways. When the groundworks overrun by two weeks, the drawn chart still shows the frame, the roof and completion where someone put them. The built programme moves each of them two weeks later, and says so the moment the progress is entered.
That difference decides arguments about time. A claim for more time is strongest when it can show that an event moved the finish date through the logic of the programme, and a programme with no logic cannot show that. Whether that effect earns more time still depends on the contract, the facts and the records. In Walter Lilly v Mackay [2012] EWHC 1773 (TCC), a dispute on an amended JCT form, the judge preferred the delay expert who worked from the longest path through the logic, as the article on the JCT master programme explains. Excel draws bars; it does not calculate a critical path, which is the subject of why Excel cannot run an NEC programme.
A built programme keeps paying for itself after acceptance. On an NEC3 Option A package, NEC Planning Solutions ran the monthly cycle from inside the contractor's team: clause 32 submissions in Primavera P6, earned value reporting and compensation events integrated with the programme through to completion. The case study sets out how the work was organised.
Types of construction programme, from tender to as-built
A project runs through several programmes, each with a different job. Much of the trouble comes from mixing them up: a tender programme treated as the baseline, or a lookahead mistaken for the contract programme.
Programme | When | What it is for | What the contract calls it |
Tender programme | At bid stage | Shows the client the work fits the time, in a sensible sequence, with the key dates met. Usually summary level, with a narrative | Asked for in the tender documents. Under NEC4 it is the Accepted Programme from the start only if the Contract Data identifies it; otherwise a programme is submitted and accepted under clause 31 |
Baseline programme | At or soon after award | The plan progress is measured against: logic-linked, with the critical path, key dates and completion | JCT: the master programme. NEC4: the Accepted Programme, once accepted under clause 31.3. FIDIC 2017: the Programme |
Revised programme | Monthly, or at the contract's interval | The baseline carried forward with actual progress, changes and the current forecast | NEC4: revisions under clause 32. JCT: a revision after a decision on an extension of time. FIDIC: a revised programme under Sub-Clause 8.3 |
Lookahead programme | Weekly, two to six weeks ahead | The detail the site team works to, with constraints cleared before the work starts | Rarely named in the contract. A site management document |
Recovery programme | When the job is behind | How lost time will be recovered, by resequencing or added resources | NEC4: part of the revised programme, which shows how the Contractor plans to deal with delays (clause 32.1) |
As-built programme | During and after delivery | What actually happened and when, activity by activity | The record behind any retrospective delay analysis |
Planners also describe programmes by their level of detail. AACE International's recommended practice on schedule levels runs from Level 0, the whole project as a single bar, through Level 1, the project by its major components, and treats Level 3 as the first level at which a meaningful critical path network can be shown. Contract programmes are usually built around that level, with the finer working detail below it carried in lookaheads. The names of the levels vary between organisations, so describe the detail you want in words when you specify a programme.
How to read a construction programme
Figure 2 is an extract of the kind a P6 programme prints: activity rows grouped under the work breakdown structure, columns of durations, dates and float on the left, and bars on a timescale on the right. Six checks, taken in this order, tell you most of what the programme is saying.
Start at the data date
The data date, which some software calls the status date, is the point up to which progress has been recorded. Everything before it is history: actual starts, actual finishes, work done. Everything after it is forecast, calculated from the remaining durations and the logic. A data date six weeks old means the forecast is six weeks old too.
Compare the forecast finish with the contract date
Find the completion milestone and compare it with the date in the contract. Under NEC4 the programme shows both planned Completion, the Contractor's own forecast, and the Completion Date, and the gap between them is the Contractor's terminal float. Under JCT the comparison is with the Completion Date as extended. A forecast later than the contract date is a delay that someone will have to explain.
Follow the critical path
Scheduling software marks the critical path. In P6 it is either the longest path through the logic or the activities whose total float is at or below a set value, usually zero. Read it end to end and ask whether it is believable. A critical path that runs through a minor finishing trade while the frame and the cladding sit off it usually means missing logic, not an unusual job.
In my own reviews, this is the check I make first. Is the critical path valid, and does it make sense from a construction, engineering and buildability point of view? The rest is decoration and compliance. It keeps the programme intact and the reporting accurate, but it cannot make a doubtful critical path credible.
Read the float
Total float is how long an activity can slip before it delays the finish, or a date it is constrained to meet. Free float is how long it can slip before it delays any activity that follows it. Negative float means the programme, as linked and scheduled, cannot meet a date imposed on it. Treat it as a warning, and find the constraint behind it before deciding what it means.
Check that every activity is linked
Every activity except the first and the last should have at least one predecessor and one successor. An open end, an activity with nothing after it, can slip indefinitely without moving the completion milestone. Look too for dates typed in as constraints where logic should be: a hard constraint holds an activity in place whatever happens before it, and the programme stops telling the truth about delay.
Compare the bars with the baseline
Most programmes carry a baseline, a saved copy of the agreed version, shown as a thinner bar beneath each current one. Where a current bar sits right of its baseline, the work is late against the plan, and the variance column says by how much. The pattern matters more than any single bar: slippage along the critical path is a forecast of late completion. If these checks raise doubts, five signs a programme has lost integrity is the next read.
What the site needs from the programme
A programme the contract accepts can still be one the site ignores. Site teams work from a programme when they recognise their own work in it. The activities are named by area and trade, each has someone responsible for it, and each is small enough to report against every week. The information, materials and access each one needs are shown before they are due.
Three habits keep it in use. The weekly lookahead is cut from the programme rather than drawn beside it, so the work planned on site is the work the programme forecasts. Progress is recorded against the same activities, with remaining durations the people doing the work agree with. Anything that could stop the work in the coming weeks, such as a missing drawing, a late delivery or an outstanding permit, is raised while there is still time to clear it. Kept that way, the programme the site follows is also the one the contract can rely on.
What JCT, NEC4 and FIDIC ask of the programme
The standard forms ask very different amounts of a programme, from nothing at all to a defined acceptance procedure, with part of the payment held back in some cases until a first programme is submitted. What a form requires is the minimum. The seven things at the start of this guide are good practice whichever form applies.
Form | What it asks for | When | The client's side |
JCT Standard Building Contract 2016 | The master programme, without charge (clause 2.9.1.2), identifying the critical paths only where the Contract Particulars require it; a revision within 14 days of a decision fixing a later Completion Date or of agreeing a Pre-agreed Adjustment (2.9.2) | As soon as possible after the contract is entered into | No acceptance. The master programme imposes no obligation beyond the Contract Documents (2.9.3) |
JCT Design and Build 2016 | No express programme clause | Only if the Employer's Requirements ask for one | No acceptance under the conditions |
NEC4 ECC 2017 | A programme showing the information in clause 31.2, in the form the Scope states, revised under clause 32 | Within the period in the Contract Data, unless one is identified there | Accepted, or reasons given, within two weeks (31.3). Where no programme is identified in the Contract Data, a quarter of the Price for Work Done to Date is retained until a first programme showing the required information is submitted (50.5) |
FIDIC 2017 Red Book | An initial programme with the content Sub-Clause 8.3 prescribes, prepared in the software the Specification states, and revised when it no longer reflects progress or is inconsistent with the Contractor's obligations | Within 28 days of receiving the notice of the Commencement Date | Notice of non-compliance within 21 days, or 14 for a revision; otherwise a deemed No-objection |
The table compares the editions named in it. JCT's 2024 Standard Building Contract keeps the master programme in clause 2.9, and amendments or the documents on the job can change the position under any form, so check the contract itself.
The Society of Construction Law's Delay and Disruption Protocol, guidance rather than contract, asks more than most forms do: a properly prepared programme, accepted, updated with actual progress at intervals of no more than a month and provided in its native format, not just as a PDF. Under the CDM Regulations 2015 the client must make suitable arrangements for managing a project, including the allocation of sufficient time (regulation 4(1)), which is hard to demonstrate without a programme.
Three guides carry the detail: the JCT master programme, NEC clause 31 programme acceptance and what FIDIC Sub-Clause 8.3 requires. Where an NEC programme has already been refused, clause 31 and 32 compliance deals with exactly that.
NEC Planning Solutions builds programmes of works in Primavera P6 at a fixed fee: from £3,500 plus VAT for a programme built from your scope, up to 500 activities, or from £2,250 plus VAT to rebuild an existing programme so that it calculates. The narrative, a check before issue and one round of revisions are included. Bidding for the work instead? Tender programmes start from £1,500 plus VAT.
The author's view
Most programmes of works are bought to satisfy a request. The tender asks for one, the funder's monitoring surveyor asks for one, the contract asks for one, and the cheapest document that satisfies each request is a bar chart. Nobody who buys one is wrong. It does exactly what it was bought for, until the first change.
That is what happened on the civil and M&E job at the start of this guide. Once the programme was rebuilt with real logic, some of the money came back, though not all, and extra time was granted. The bigger gain was the arguments that never started. The project manager could follow the logic, the relationship improved, trust in the contractor grew, and both sides had more confidence that completion would come in as planned.
My test for any programme is one question. Pick an activity, push it two weeks, and ask what happens to the finish date. A built programme answers in seconds and shows its working. A drawn one cannot answer at all, because nobody told it which work depends on which. Every argument about time on a construction project is a version of that question, asked by someone with a reason to doubt the answer.
Programme of works: frequently asked questions
Is a programme of works a contract document?
Usually not, but it still carries weight. Under the JCT Standard Building Contract, the master programme imposes no obligation beyond the Contract Documents (clause 2.9.3). Under FIDIC 2017 the Programme is not one of the contract documents, though the Contractor must proceed in accordance with it. Under NEC4, delay from a compensation event is assessed against the Accepted Programme. Where the parties list the programme as a contract document, departing from it can be a breach.
Who prepares the programme of works?
The contractor, under JCT, NEC4 and FIDIC alike. The client's side reviews it: under NEC4 the Project Manager accepts it or gives reasons within two weeks, and under FIDIC 2017 the Engineer can give notice of non-compliance within 21 days. Clients often set the format, software and level of detail in the specification or Scope, so read those before building anything.
What is the difference between a programme of works and a method statement?
A method statement describes how a task will be done, step by step and safely. A programme of works shows when every task happens and in what order. The two must agree. Under NEC4, clause 31.2 asks the programme to state, for each operation, how the Contractor plans to do the work and the principal Equipment and resources it will use. That statement is not the RAMS.
What software is used to build a construction programme?
Primavera P6, Asta Powerproject and Microsoft Project are all widely used on UK contracts, with P6 common on infrastructure and larger jobs. Each calculates dates from logic, which is what a construction programme needs. Excel can draw bars but does not calculate a critical path. Check the specification first: FIDIC 2017 and NEC4 both let the client set the software or form.
How much does a programme of works cost?
It depends on the number of activities, the phasing and what else the programme has to carry, such as resources or a link to the pricing document. NEC Planning Solutions builds a programme of works in P6 from £3,500 plus VAT for up to 500 activities, and rebuilds an existing programme from £2,250 plus VAT. The fee is fixed and confirmed in writing before work starts.
About the author
Roman Bazelchuk is the Founder of NEC Planning Solutions Ltd, a UK project planning and controls consultancy supporting contractors with NEC programme compliance, compensation event assessments and live project controls. He is an NEC Accredited Project Manager and holds the APMG Project Planning and Control qualification, with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering and postgraduate training in Planning and Control.
NEC Planning Solutions provides contract-aware planning support through a QA-governed delivery model, helping project teams keep programmes accepted, current and commercially useful from tender through to live delivery.
Need a programme of works built, or yours rebuilt?
Send the drawings and the dates you have. The fee and the issue date come back in writing before any work starts, and once the programme is issued, live project controls and reporting keeps it current month by month.
