MODA: An expert system for managing owner-directed acceleration

MODA, an acronym for Managing Owner Directed Acceleration, is a knowledge-based expert system that can be used as a dispute resolution tool for managing owner-directed acceleration. This tool is intended to be used as an aid for helping owners and contractors foresee the implications of accelerating a project in terms of cost and liabilities involved. The system has an analysis program written in LISP as its backbone. After obtaining the initial information from the user, the system triggers the analysis program. The analysis program analyzes the files submitted by the user then gives back control to the system. The system will first assign liabilities to the parties for past events such as cancelled, added, and modified activities that were not foreseen in the original schedule. It will do this by means of a set of if-then rules and certainty factors based on the responses obtained from the user. The system will then incorporate this information chronologically into a compression analysis, which to our knowledge is the first attempt ever to automate the compression analysis, performed on the remaining portion of the project and will clarify the parties liable for the proposed acceleration. The system can make a human mediator's job more effective and economical, but can also reduce the occurrence of acceleration-related disputes considerably. Indeed, the system will be available to all parties at all times; the owner who is planning to accelerate the remaining portion of the project will be able to observe the expected consequences (in terms of the parties' responsibilities with respect to time and money) by running the planned action through the system before the change is initiated. Similarly, the contractor will know ahead of time whether the acceleration ordered by the owner is wholly or partly his responsibility. This will help the parties in reaching an agreement before the decision for acceleration is made by the owner.