Attached are the presentation slides from the 55th Annual Meeting of the AACE International.

The first decade of the 21st century has brought the engineering and construction
industry into a new era of mega-projects. In the US, much of the post-WWII infrastructure has reached
the end of its life. We are replacing major highway interchanges, upgrading power distribution systems
with modern smart-grid technology, and breaking ground on the first new nuclear plants in 30 years. At
the same time, the developing world is leaping into the modern era with an unprecedented investment
in infrastructure, particularly in China.

The last one percent of a project can be the most difficult portion to execute. Substantial completion is often the first milestone associated with delay computations.

Over the past few years, there has been much discussion of the use and over-use of the many features available in CPM scheduling software. As software packages and the schedules that they are used to create have become more complex, the underlying calculations that are performed have become obscured.

Change happens. Change is inevitable. The construction industry has accepted the fact that changes will occur on almost all construction projects. The industry is aware that changes often lead to disputes; but the knowledge that change is coming is not the same thing as being prepared for it. To determine whether we are truly prepared for change, we look to our contracts.