Either method
Contemporaneous period analysis
Reconstruct the decisions period by period using the programme updates and narratives that existed at the time.
- Jurisdiction
- General method guidance, not jurisdiction specific
- Law and editions as at
- 3 August 2026
- Last reviewed
- 3 August 2026
- Editorial status
- Editorial draft, not yet independently reviewed
The question it answers
What did the project know, and what was controlling completion, in each period?
Reconstructing how assessments were, or should have been, made as the job ran, particularly under contracts that require assessment at the time.
Minimum evidence
- Regular programme updates and narratives
- Progress evidence for each period
- The correspondence and instructions issued in the period
This sits close to windows analysis and is often described as part of the same family. The difference in emphasis is the object of study: the windows method asks what happened to the critical path, and contemporaneous period analysis asks what the project knew and decided while it was happening.
It is the natural method where a contract required assessments to be made as events arose, and the dispute is partly about whether those assessments were properly made.
Strengths
- Tracks the evolving critical path using contemporaneous material
- Fits contracts that assess events prospectively, at the point they arise
Frequent failures
- Unvalidated updates carried forward without checking
- Arbitrary period boundaries
- Later knowledge quietly used to judge earlier decisions
Mandatory caution
Test each update rather than assuming it. A period analysis built on updates nobody validated inherits every error in them.
Other methods
Where the record comes in
Every mechanism on this page turns on evidence: what happened, what was known and when. A record built as the job happens is worth more than any argument assembled afterwards. Construction Metric keeps that record automatically, from the messages, photographs and voice notes a site team already sends.
Built by AI Metric
The analysis on this site is only as fast as the evidence behind it. AI Metric builds bespoke systems for consultancies, contractors and claims teams: document and correspondence triage, event registers assembled from the project record, programme and cost reconciliation, and drafting support that always cites the document it came from. Built for review by your own experts, never to replace their judgement.
Do not overread this page
No method decides entitlement, and no method is court approved. A method is fit when it answers the relevant question with the reliable data available, respects the contract and the governing law, and survives alternative explanations. The choice must be explained and defended, not asserted.
General explanation of how contract mechanisms, analysis methods and legal principles generally work. It is not legal or contractual advice, not an opinion on any project, and no standard-form contract wording is reproduced anywhere on this site. Standard forms are routinely amended, so every default described here, including every time period, can be different on your project. Your executed contract, as amended, and the governing law and forum always control. Deadlines may already be running: if an event has occurred, preserve your position and take qualified advice.