What is Time Impact Analysis?
Scott Explains Time Impact Analysis in this YouTube video
Time Impact Analysis (TIA) is a common approach to analyzing delays on a project. You develop a fragnet, which is a fragmentary network for the issue (i.e. the change). It’s like a little mini-schedule for the change. You take that fragmentary network, you drop it into contemporaneous schedule, and then look to see how it affects that schedule. That’s the TIA analysis.
If you’re looking at delays prospectively, in other words, before they’ve occurred (you’ve got a change and you’re trying to figure out how this change you’re contemplating would affect the project) a TIA approach is the approach you’d use to evaluate the delay. Use the TIA to identify and measure critical delays that have not yet occurred.
This is the approach you use before the delay has occurred. Unless required by the contract, do not use this method to evaluate delays that have already occurred. Don’t use it to look behind you.
We’re not going to go through the step-by-step of the TIA. That’s beyond the scope of this particular Ideas & Insights. If you’re interested in knowing the steps, just send me an email at scott.lowe@traunerconsulting.com.
One other thing, if you’re looking for a source that describes probably the closest thing that exists to an industry-wide standard with regard to how you would conduct a TIA analysis, I could point to the Recommended Practice for Forensic Schedule Analysis. This document is published by an organization called the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACEI).
The Time Impact Analysis technique is identified as MIP 3.7. I think you’ll find that it’s a pretty good source for describing how to do a TIA. There’s also information on the subject in just about any book on delays. They’ll tell you how to do a Time Impact Analysis.
Scott Lowe is a Principal of TRAUNER and is an expert in the areas of critical path method scheduling, construction claim preparation and evaluation, and specification writing. He can be reached at scott.lowe@traunerconsulting.com.
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