Hamed Arabzadeh, PMP, PSP, CMIT
Principal Consultant
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Expert QuestionS & AnswerS
How does investigating delay analysis differ from schedule analysis, and what unique evidence or challenges does each present?
Schedule analysis focuses on the plan and how it was performed, while investigative delay analysis goes further by examining what actually happened in reality and why. Investigative delay analysis emphasizes on contemporaneous evidence such as daily reports, RFIs, weather reports, photos, witness accounts, meeting minutes, progress reports, and various other project records to prove causation.
As someone who trains others in your discipline, what’s the most common mistake you see less experienced investigators make in construction dispute?
The biggest mistake is treating the critical path of a project as if it were static. The critical path is never static as it can, and will, shift when sequencing, constraints, and actual progress evolves. The analysis that locks onto a single as-planned schedule tends to miss how the controlling work changed over time. That alone can undermine the entire delay analysis conclusions.
Construction delay disputes hinge on causation and documentation — what’s the most common gap you find in project records that weakens one side’s case?
The most common gap is that schedule updates often don’t reflect the reality of the project. Instead of accurately recording and documenting progress, they may be used to support a preferred narrative or obscure emerging issues. When the schedule no longer mirrors actual progress and the realistic path to completion, causation becomes hard to determine and delays hard to quantify.
Background
Mr. Hamed Arabzadeh holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and an M.Eng. in Construction Project Management and is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Planning & Scheduling Professional (PSP). Mr. Arabzadeh is an experienced Project Controls Specialist with a demonstrated history of providing program and project controls and management services to public and private entities. He has over a decade of construction, project controls, construction claims and disputes, contract management, and estimating experience.
As a Senior Consultant, he investigates and analyzes complex construction claims and establishes cause and effect relationships, as well as entitlement and quantum. As an expert in schedule and schedule delay analysis, Mr. Arabzadeh performs schedule-based services including Forensic Delay Analysis on multi-million-dollar construction claims nationwide.
He provides valuable consulting services to insurers, contractors, construction managers, and owners about construction advisory, claims avoidance, and project controls. Mr. Arabzadeh performs root cause analyses, identifies solutions, and assists in the implementation of solutions as they relate to construction claims, dispute resolution, and risk aversion. In addition, Mr. Arabzadeh offers extensive experience with contractor default, subcontractor default, professional liability, builder’s risk, delay in start-up, project suspension, advance loss of profits, and loss of production income-related matters.
Mr. Arabzadeh has a significant breadth of experience, having worked as a Schedule Analyst for an international project management and claims consultancy firm. Mr. Arabzadeh is experienced in matters involving Forensic Delay Analysis (FDA) and all aspects of the AACEi and other Industry standards for FDA, including assessments utilizing As-Planned vs. As-Built, Contemporaneous Period Analysis, Half-Step Analysis, Time Impact Analysis, Collapsed As-Built Analysis, etc., delay impacts, extended performance, lost productivity, disruptive impacts, extended general conditions, and liquidated damages.
Education and Certifications
· Construction Project Management, M.Sc. (2015)
· Civil Engineering, B.Sc. (2012)
· Certified AACE International Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP)
· Certified PMI Project Management Professional (PMP)
· Certified Construction Management in Training (CMIT)