The Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) International is holding its annual Conference and Expo at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter on June 26-28.
With over 7,000 members in over 100 countries, this AACE global event will attract delegates from a wide range of industries including construction, utilities, defence, government as well as oil & gas, and consulting.
The AACE Conference and Expo three-day conference will include inspirational Keynote Speakers and over 100 expert speakers available providing 100 tracks, networking opportunities and an Expo Hall.
San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter
101 Bowie Street
San Antonio, TX 78205
Tracks, Tracks, Tracks
Tracks will be divided into categories: Planning and Scheduling, Project Management, Earned Value Management, Decision & Risk, and Project Controls. With so many tracks available we have selected a sample from each of them.
Planning and Scheduling
Sylvia M. Donado will offer a track ‘The Art of Scheduling’. Schedulers use concepts that are continually developed to reach advanced levels. By mastering the technical skills, a scheduler can learn to be creative and use the rules to give their work stronger meaning and effectiveness. Sylvia will offer her insights on how creative and technical skills shouldn’t be treated as separate skill sets. Sylvia will discuss the way both skills get applied is can lead to effectively developed schedules and management of the Critical Path Method (CPM). Proper CPM techniques have proven to be extremely effective in establishing communication of a plan, and production goals, monitoring, and managing progress, and managing change in projects and programs.
Albert P. (Mac) McMillan and Richard H. Stack, Jr will present a track ‘Critical Path Method (CPM) and Project Production Planning (PP): Complimentary or Exclusionary’ The Project Production Institute (PPI) has recommended abandoning CPM scheduling and using Production Planning (PP) techniques as CPM has failed to deliver projects on schedule. Richard and Mac will offer their insights on PPI’s recommendations, assessing both CPM and PP. Richard and Mac will address why CPM has not been effective on mega projects and whether CPM can be “fixed”. Finally, Richard and Mac will discuss whether CPM and PP are complimentary or exclusionary.
Vijaykumar A. Damle will offer a track, ‘Schedule Delays: Why They Happen & How to Avoid Them’. Vijaykumar will offer his insights on the need to develop a credible baseline within a detailed schedule. Vijaykumar. Will demonstrate standard logic networks that will help project, duration, and resource-driven schedules. Vijaykumar will discuss project internal, and project external causes of schedule delays and which tools must be in place to avoid logic and critical-path schedule delays and resource-driven cumulative delays. Vijaykumar will offer his insights on key issues such as schedule integrity and timely critical-path analysis. Finally, Vijaykumar will review advances in the scheduling field, including 4D planning, emerging data analysis techniques, the use of drones and satellites in the site and plot-plan development, and the use of onsite cameras to record project progress.
Abbas Shakourifar, PSP will run a track, ‘Utilizing Agile Work Methods in the Schedule Development Process’. Abbas will offer his insights on how a well-developed CPM schedule is a key development to success in any project team. Abbas will identify the characteristics of the schedule development process which make it a proper use case for agile work methods. Abbas will explain how key schedule statistics and critical path metrics can be used as key performance indicators (KPI) during agile schedule development to improve and optimize the project schedule throughout the process. Abbas will offer his insights on how agile schedule development will ensure that the final project is robust and has a reliable schedule that can be used for both monitoring the project and forecasting the end date.
Project Management
Praduman (Prad) Maraj, PE PSP | Daniel Sokoloski, PE PSP
Prad and Daniel will offer a track ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Challenges of Mid-Stream Project Management. Using a case study Prad and Daniel will offer their insights about the challenges they faced from taking over the project management of a bridge replacement project after two years of construction. Owing to a backlog of correspondence, the contractor’s attitude, and a breakdown in communication with the owner they faced multiple claims. Prad and Daniel will offer their insights and lessons learned in four key areas:
- What factors lead to the breakdown in communications.
- Measures that were taken to gain control of the project management process.
- Understanding the project documents and contract as a framework for project control.
- Highlight measures that can help avoid or mitigate escalating disputes.
Alberto Carlos Caldeira, Costa Coelho, Cocis Alexandre dos Santos Balbino Sr. P.Eng, Leonardo Muller CCP PSP will all present a track ‘A Standard WBS Proposition for Fixed Platforms Decommissioning in Brazil’. Oil and gas exploration offshore has been carried out through fixed production platforms. At the end of the life cycle, they have to be decommissioned. In Brazil alone, it is estimated that between 2021-2025 decommissioning will cost $5.2billion. Alberto, Cocis, and Leonardo will offer their insights on a WBS that covers the decommissioning process from planning to project closure. Although the WBS that Alberto, Cocis, and Leonardo discuss is specific to Brazilian legislation, it is structured to organize and order the activities that make up the complete scope of the project following good project practices and can be adapted internationally.
Christopher P. Caddell, PE CCP DRMP, and Sydney G. Overman, CST will present a track ‘Project Documentation: Supporting Your Position’. Chris and Sydney will offer their insights on how the resolution of a dispute on a project can be dependent upon the available documentation that each party has to either support its request for compensation and, the time or refute that request. Chris and Sydney will discuss how frequently, the parties lack the proper documentation to establish entitlement, causation of impacts, and cost and time quantification. Contractors, subcontractors, and owners typically fail to collect and retain the necessary data and documentation that would help the parties reach an agreement on disputes. Chris and Sydney will offer their recommendations on what types of data and documentation owners and contractors should collect and how they can be used in addressing these disputes.
Earned Value Management
Abbas Saifi, EVP PSP will present a track ‘Taming Your Organization for Earned Value Management System (EVMS)’. Although there is a gradual shift in implementing (EVMS) on public infrastructure projects there is little clarity on how and why it should be implemented, resulting in many contractors shying away from adopting it. Abbas will offer his insights on the recommendation of EVMS implementation. Abbas will demonstrate a simple technique for the input of data to the project schedule to get reliable outputs and metrics for stakeholders. Abbas will also provide a systematic guide for implementing EVMS for the contractor that also provides recommendations for consultants for a flexible and realistic approach to the construction industry.
Dan Melamed, CCP EVP FAACE | Charles E. Bolyard, Jr. CFCC PSP FAACE | Robert M. Freas | Michael F. Marcell, EVP PSP
Dan, Charles, Robert, and Michael will hold a panel discussion on ‘Earned Value Management Use in Claims’. Earned Value Management (EVM) integrates scope, schedule, and costs to provide a factual basis from which methods can be applied to evaluate actual progress and performance, including resources, against the planned schedule and budgets. Analysts then determine whether the schedule and costs are meeting planned targets and budgets. Dan, Charles, Robert, and Michael will all offer their insights on what characteristics make an EVM system the source of robust data with integrity for use in claims analysis, both prospectively and retrospectively. The panel will also examine the challenges EVM Practitioners may encounter while seeking to ensure that their EVM data can be readily used by forensic experts in the preparation and analysis of schedule delay and lost productivity claims.
Omar Al Rawashdeh, P.Eng. CCP PSP will offer a track ‘Comparison Between Earned Schedule and CPM in Estimating the Project Duration.’ Omar will offer his insights on Earned Schedule (ES), a new technique to measure the performance of projects, that has adopted some of the same variables that are used in earned value management (EVM). Omar will explain that ES differs from EVMS as it measures the performance in terms of time instead of cost, allowing ES to be used to estimate the project completion time. Typically, the construction industry uses the Critical Path Method (CPM) to estimate the project completion time. Omar will offer his insights on both of these methods for estimating the project completion time and will offer his recommendations as to which method is the most accurate. Omar’s comparisons between these two methods (ES & CPM) will show the effectiveness of each one in estimating the actual project duration.
Decision and Risk
Gino Napuri, EVP, and Francisco Cruz Moreno, PE will present ‘The Importance of Doing a Risk Assessment in Every Project, Early and Often.’ Francisco and Gino will offer their insights on how the majority of projects fail their estimates to complete as most projects do not execute risk assessments early and often. Francisco and Gino will explain that developing and executing a risk assessment early in a project reduces the risk of dealing with project threats and opportunities in an unprepared and chaotic fashion when they occur. Awareness of time, cost, and/or scope risk impacts on a project is crucial. Francisco and Gino will offer their insights on a process that assists the project team in avoiding the continuous failure of completing a project on time, on budget, and within scope because of a lack of proper risk management. Francisco and Gino will offer recommendations to help avoid risk pitfalls by executing risk assessments at a continuous and consistent pace, not only when the risk arises, but from the beginning of the project through to completion.
Jessica M. Colbert, PRMP PSP | Kimberly D. Forbes, PSP
Jessica and Kimberly will present ‘Implementing Qualitative Project Risk Management. Jessica and Kimberly will offer their insights on how projects are challenging and full of risks that threaten the schedule and budget. They will explain that risk management is a critical component to project success and if an organization has no formal risk program or is early in its implementation, project risk management can be inconsistent and ineffective. Jessica and Kimberley will offer their insights on different strategies used to implement qualitative risk management on any project. Finally, Jessica and Kimberley will discuss common areas that project teams experience with risk management implementation and solutions to prevent these challenges.
Dr. David T. Hulett FAACE | Waylon T. Whitehead
David and Waylon will present ‘The Development of Corrected and Summarized Schedules to Support Monte Carlo Simulation’. Often contractors’ proposals are detailed and contain commercial goals that may make them unsuitable for use in quantitative risk modeling. David and Waylon will offer their insights on the factors imposed on schedules that degrade them as tools for quantitative schedule risk analysis using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). David and Waylon will explain that a great deal of effort is usually required to convert these schedules into reliable tools for risk modeling. David and Waylon will offer their insights on why these schedules lead to creating summary schedules that strictly adhere to best practices whilst representing the overall project plan rather than de-bugging the contractor’s detailed schedule. Although (CPM) scheduling implies that what is needed to support MCS is to follow best practice CPM guidelines, some of the guidelines can have an impact on the conduct of MCS-based schedule risk analysis. Finally, David and Waylon will explain why they recommend using a simpler smaller schedule risk analysis that is a compliant summary schedule rather than simulating the project’s detailed schedule with its flaws.
Project Controls
Christopher W. Carson, CEP DRMP PSP FAACE | Glen R. Palmer, CFCC PSP FAACE
Chris and Glen will present ‘The Top Ten Worst Situations with Proven Project Controls Solutions’. Both Chris and Glen have a long history of experience in successfully resolving very difficult situations that may appear impossible. Chris and Glen will offer their insights on ten projects where they bought in when it was recognized that the project team was in trouble. Chris and Glen will discuss how they resolved these issues and the solutions that they implemented to successfully resolve real problems. Chris and Glen will discuss how these proven practical solutions should give delegates an insight into resolving similar issues in their careers.
Larry R. Dysert, CCP CEP DRMP FAACE Hon. Life
Larry will present ‘Alignment of Cost Estimating and the Project Development Process’. Larry will offer his insights on how cost estimating supports critical decision-making during the project planning and development processes. Larry will discuss how in early project planning phases, cost estimating supports value-based decisions regarding project capacity, location, technology selection, execution, and contracting strategies. Eventually, the cost estimate is a key element to the final approval and funding authorization that commits a project to proceed and eventual start-up. Larry will offer his insights on the importance of cost estimating during the various stages of project development. Larry will explain that cost estimating is essential during each phase of the project development process to ensure that effective decisions are made to meet all project goals and objectives.
Networking
Networking will be available after each track where delegates can discuss best practices. Delegates will have the opportunity to network globally or geographically. Some of the Industry experts, who have run tracks will be available to discuss new emerging trends.
AACE Expo
Vendors will be in the Expo Hall demonstrating their products and offering hands-on advice, and tips. Both Oracle and Deltek will have a strong presence as they are sponsors of this event.
Registration Details
Full Program
June 26-28 |
1 Day Technical Program
(June 26,27 or 28) |
|
Member | $1,125 | $800 |
Non-member | $1,325 | $900 |
Student member | $800 | not applicable |
Group discounts are available for groups of 5 or more by applying directly to AACE.
To register for this event click here
Accommodation
We reviewed two hotels close to the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter, La Quinta by Wyndham San Antonio Riverwalk and the Menger hotel.
La Quinta by Wyndham San Antonio Riverwalk
303 Blum Street
San Antonio TX 78205
La Quinta is a three-star hotel situated approximately 0.6miles from the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter, close to the boardwalk and river walk. The hotel is clean with comfortable beds. The staff are awesome and offer exceptional service. Check-in and out are easy and the hotel offers a complimentary breakfast. A two-night stay costs $397.00.
Menger Hotel
204 Alamo Plaza
San Antonio TX 78205
The Menger Hotel is a three-star historical boutique hotel situated approximately 0.5miles from the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter. The Menger Hotel is adjacent to the infamous Alamo attraction and the San Antonio River Walk. This quaint hotel has all of the amenities of a larger hotel with the addition of a courtyard garden. Although it is old the hotel is very clean and the beds are comfortable. The staffs are friendly and knowledgeable of the local area. A two-night stay costs $402.00.
Summary
This AACE conference has something for everyone as it attracts multiple different industries. AACE cleverly categorizes its tracks so that delegates can easily find the technical tracks, that suit their industry, whether it is Project Management or Estimating and Cost Management.
The technical tracks, run by industry experts cover a wide range of programs and projects. As there are so many tracks all delegates will have a six-month access pass to the conference to view any tracks that they missed. The vendors in the Expo Hall have been carefully selected for the latest tools, software, and hardware, used in the different industries.
Networking is always invaluable, where delegates can meet up with friends and new colleagues to discuss a particular project or program problem or the latest trends and best practices.