A recovery plan can mean a number of things, and before issuing one, it is important to consult the contract and/or client to understand which one applies:

1) A revised programme to recover contractor delays to the forecast completion, of the project or project stage, costs to be met by the contractor

2) A revised programme to recover client delays to the forecast completion, of the project or project stage, costs to be met by the client (ie an instruction to accelerate)

3) A revised programme to recover all delays to the forecast completion, of the project or project stage, costs to be met by the contractor

4) A revised programme to recover all delays to the forecast completion, of the project or project stage, costs to be met by the client

5) In contract forms where the logic / durations / calendars /constraints cannot normally be ammended after client approval, a revised programme to recover as much delay as possible at zero cost (this will normally be the contractor's working programme or optimistic schedule)

It is good praxctise and benfits both contractor and client if any outstanding EOT claims are resolved prior to this excercise so both sides understand the full implications of the recovery programme. This is not always possible but should at least be attempted.

A couple of other points to bear in mind:

-If the cost to the contractor of recovering the delay are larger than the financial penalties for late completion, it may not be desirable to commit to a recovery programme

-If some or all of the delays to be recovered are client delays, check with the client as to what, if anything they can do to help (e.g. shorter client approval periods, relaxed quality control procedures, etc)

-Sometimes forecast delay can be recovered by increasing risk (e.g. placing an order before final approval). It is important to understand who bears the costs of such risks.

Hi sohayle,

When the Project progress is delayed as against the Contract programme, the Owner can request for a recovery schedule. The Contractor can change the sequencing of the activities or the duration of the activities to meet the original project completion date and the revised programme could be submitted as a recovery programme. However, the term recovery schedule is used mostly used with regards to recovering the Contractor's culpable delays. So, the recovery schedule is requested so as to recover the culpable delays by the Contractor and the submission of recovery schedule to a certain extent will be like the Contractor's admission of his delays.

On the other hand, if the contractor has an EOT request  in place and the Contractor believes he has an entitlement for EOT, then the recovery schedule request could be treated as a request for constructive acceleration, provided, the Contractor  gives notice to the client stating that their request for recovery schedule would be considered subject to additional cost.