Why do projects fail? Why does it seem that despite our best efforts in employing new contract vehicles and new technologies to manage projects, there is an increasing number of projects that are not completed within the originally-planned budget, schedule, and program parameters? Why are these projects failing to meet the owner’s expectations? Studies by… Read More

The seventh anniversary of Superstorm Sandy passed recently, and we have been struck by the changing attitudes toward resiliency and sustainability since then. Sandy devastated many communities along coastal New York and New Jersey and served as a milestone event in understanding the importance of communities becoming more resilient. Our team at MBP played a… Read More

Wherever you choose to celebrate this holiday season, we wish you a happy, safe holiday and a joyous New Year from our MBP family to yours. We look forward to working with you and making 2020 another successful year!

In the last post in this blog series, we identified reasons that loss of efficiency claims, which are becoming more prevalent due to chronic labor shortages in the industry, are difficult to present and prove. The reasons included bad data, unclear causes of disruption, and limited tools. However, in an era of inexpensive technology and… Read More

Recently, I spoke at a seminar covering Public-Private Partnership (P3) project delivery where we ended with a very engaging question and answer period. There were two main themes that came out of this discussion: (1) A culture change is needed among public owners to perform more P3 delivery(2) How to overcome the fear of failing… Read More

Although they may sound similar, the “Buy American Act” and the “Buy America Act” are very different. Since the early 1930s, the federal government has enforced domestic material procurement requirements when it funds the construction of public projects. Knowing the difference can save your project, as the penalties for failing to comply can be severe…. Read More

Yes, I admit it – I am a scheduling geek. My favorite class in college included manual CPM calculations.  My wife had to have an intervention so I did not put our wedding planning calendar in P3. But why?  What is it about these relationship lines and date calculations that I find so fascinating? Perhaps… Read More

re·sil·ience the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity Resilience is an important priority today and will become even more important in the years ahead as climate change continues to intensify. Until recently, the Earth had been very resilient, adjusting and balancing… Read More

Innovation Forum Recap We recently held an Innovation Forum where MBP team members pitched ideas to improve the way we do things. We wanted our team to challenge the status quo and they did not disappoint. They devised solutions to automate data entry, streamline our schedule reviews, integrate handy phone apps to communicate with our clients,… Read More

Every summer about the time the last of the cherry bombs went off and the flag banners had finally been rolled up, my dad, James, would call me out of the treehouse to help with a family ritual. He’d roll Big Red, our old Pontiac Catalina, out of the garage and we’d set to work… Read More