Early warnings are good, compensation events are bad. Discuss….

Of course this is extremely over simplistic but within NEC3 contracts, the early warning (EW) process has been called the jewel in the crown. That’s easy to comprehend. The more notice you have of an impending matter, the better chance you have of doing something about it. Co-operative behaviour, where people solve problems, is surely a good place to be from all perspectives (other than those that derive an income from chaos!). When a compensation event (CE) arises, all the parties are left to do is agree the additional time/cost associated with the CE – at this point it is what it is and most of the opportunity to be creative and solve such problems has been lost.

So how are we doing in all of this? As a rule of thumb on NEC projects, are there more or less EWs than CEs? If more, do the parties fell they are in a good state of management control? If less, what on earth is going on with that project and how are you going to change it?

Remember, early warnings are good, compensation events are bad….!