Before Diales
When I set about writing this article, it got me thinking, when did my journey to become a Delay Expert actually begin? It probably started back in 2000, at the outset of my career.
David Bunn, Delay Expert, UK
After leaving school I found myself working in the planning department for a main contractor, where I started to develop my understanding of construction processes. One of my earliest tasks was to assist a delay expert that had been appointed by my employer to work on an adjudication.
At a time when fax machines ruled the industry and businesses typically had one central email address, I was tasked with replicating the delay expert’s hand drawn programmes within an early version of the Powerproject planning software. Even at the early stages of my career, the forensic nature of delay analysis intrigued me and from then on, I always had an eye on directing my career towards becoming a Delay Expert.
However, one thing I lacked at the tender age of 16, which is also a key ingredient to being considered an expert in any field, was experience! The term “expert” being anywhere between 10,000 hours of study in the West or 60,000 of refining your skills in Japan.
It was not until around 15 years later, after I had worked on many different projects, that my first significant opportunity to move towards becoming a Delay Expert presented itself.
At this point, I was working as a senior planner for a main contractor when an opportunity arose to work for Driver Project Services (a Diales Group company that provide a range of consultancy services to support the successful delivery of live projects).
Diales Advisory
After almost three years' working for DPS, an opportunity arose to join the advisory part of the business. I became one of the first candidates to undertake the Minerva training programme which had been introduced by the business as an initiative to develop experienced construction professionals into senior consultants. The Minerva training programme included support through a Master’s degree, a mentoring programme and in-house training with various experts in the business.
Of course, the transition from a planner to consultant is not an instant one, the roles and skill sets are very different, which initially meant starting from the bottom. In what felt like a step back to 2000, I soon found myself organising 1000s of progress photos in chronological order so that they fitted neatly into a PowerPoint presentation to summarise the ‘as-built’ story of a project. However, this was actually providing me with in-depth exposure to the information necessary to underpin a claim.
This new role also presented several new and exciting (if daunting) challenges. Firstly, there was a significant increase in workload required to complete a Master’s degree alongside a full-time job. This was further exacerbated by the incredible news on returning home from my first day at Diales that my wife was expecting our first child. In what seemed like a heartbeat, the roller coaster ride that was supporting my wife through her pregnancy was replaced by sleepless nights, early morning studying and then on to the day job. However, whilst you may be asking why I am discussing new parenthood in this article, the need to juggle, multitask and work flat out for demanding clients is all part of the Delay Expert role.
Very early I recognised that a central skill for a Delay Expert is report writing, which is not always natural for planners who are usually trained to develop short-form narratives for progress reports, emails and the like. One of the first training tasks that I was required to do was to peer review expert reports to familiarise myself with the structure and content of an expert report. It also provided a sobering look at the standard that would be required to succeed in my new undertaking.
However, under the excellent and above all else patient guidance of experts in the Teesside office, and across the company, I began to support the investigative and narrative works necessary to underpin an expert report. All under the strict instruction and keen eye of the expert who I was supporting.
My writing skills soon developed through writing shorter reports for claim preparation and avoidance commissions where the facts are reviewed to provide a preliminary position as to the strength of a client’s position, allowing the client to make a reasoned decision on how to approach a particular issue.
Supported by senior Diales experts within the company, I progressed to writing my own detailed delay reports.
Another significant hurdle for me was the public speaking aspect of the role. The role of an expert may require in person expert witness evidence in a hearing, the pinnacle of which is to provide oral evidence for cross-examination at a court or arbitration hearing. Of course, such a role requires the expert to be capable of public speaking, which was at that stage my biggest fear. Diales provided internal public speaking courses and supported me with piecemeal development, with small parts in our bi-annual seminars soon becoming near Oscar winning performances… Well not quite, but I certainly do not fear public speaking anymore, and fully understand the need to be able to put my opinions across in a calm and understandable manner.
Diales Expert Services
Following the completion of the Minerva training programme and promotion to senior consultant, I continued to deliver delay reports for the purposes of negotiation and expert appointments which led to me being promoted to Associate Director.
Shortly after my promotion, I undertook another Diales training initiative, the ‘Diales expert programme’.
The Diales expert programme is designed to develop senior consultants into fully fledged experts in line with numerous competencies which are all necessary for a testifying expert. For each competency the candidate must demonstrate 1) a high level of understanding, 2) that they have supported an expert in relation to that specific competency and 3) application of the competency. Importantly, the training focused on exposure to areas where I lacked experience or areas that are not my chosen field, including other disciplines such as quantum and technical, thus providing the platform to become a well-rounded expert who can work alone and also as part of a group of other discipline experts.
The Diales expert programme also included cross examination training, which proved to be plain sailing compared to my final series of interrogations by a senior expert within Diales, which were akin to the final battle with the ultimate boss in a 90s arcade game.
After emerging victorious, or at least still in one piece, from my final interrogations, I had finally realised my goal of becoming a Delay Expert, 25 years in the making, with my expert profile alongside some of the best in the business on the Diales website. By way of interest, 25 years, and an average of 47 weeks a year and 50 hours a week (and more as a hungry young planner) coincidentally puts me at around 60,000 hours in my specialist field.
Whilst I have invested a significant amount of time and focus into my career to find myself where I am today, I cannot imagine a better environment for development than Diales. Diales provides real opportunities for career development with support, training and lots of patience from the industry’s finest, many of whom are genuinely willing to invest their time into the development of others.
This article was originally written for issue 30 of the Diales Digest. You can view the publication here: https://www.diales.com/diales-digest-issue-30