Tender Programme
Last reviewed 9 September 20263,605 words16 min read
Planning at bid stage — the programme that prices the job, and may become the contract
🟩 In one line: The tender programme is a Level 2 programme (Level 3 where the risk is) built from the tender quantities and the estimator's rates, on real Gulf calendars, with every employer dependency shown as a milestone and every assumption listed — because it sets the preliminaries duration in the price, and under NEC it becomes the Accepted Programme on the day the contract is signed.
👤 Who this is for: M/S, with J reading for the method. Prerequisites: schedule-levels-1-to-5, crew-and-manhour-formulas, milestones-and-key-dates, float-ownership-and-contract.
First, let's be honest about why this page exists
Most tender programmes are drawn in the last four days of the bid by whoever is free, back-fitted to the employer's completion date, with 180 activities, no procurement, no approvals, a 5-day calendar copied from the last job and summer ignored. The estimator prices 18 months of preliminaries; the programme shows 16; the bid goes in with a gap nobody reconciled. If it wins, the programme is either quietly binned or, worse, becomes the contract programme with its fictions intact.
The tender programme has three jobs: tell the estimator how long the site is open, show the employer the method is credible, and record what the bid assumed so that when those assumptions fail, the record exists. A programme that does those three things in 250–400 activities is worth more than one that does none in 2,000.
🟨 The standard — what "good" looks like
| Source | What it asks for (paraphrased) | Consequence at tender |
|---|---|---|
| FIDIC 1999 Cl 8.3 / 2017 Cl 8.3 | Detailed programme submitted within 28 days after the commencement notice / Commencement Date; supporting report on methods and resources | The tender programme is not that programme — but it is the Level 2 the Cl 8.3 programme is developed from |
| FIDIC 1999 Cl 4.1, 8.1, 8.2 / 2017 equivalents | Contractor completes within the Time for Completion from the Commencement Date | Tender programme duration must fit the Time for Completion, with a visible float position |
| FIDIC 1999 Cl 1.5 / 2017 Cl 1.5 (priority of documents) | Documents listed in the Contract Agreement bind | If the employer lists the tender programme as a contract document, it binds; check the tender instructions |
| NEC3/NEC4 Cl 11.2(1) | The Accepted Programme is the programme identified in the Contract Data or the latest accepted | The tender programme identified in Contract Data Part 2 is the Accepted Programme from day one |
| NEC3/NEC4 Cl 31.2 | Programme content: starting date, access dates, Key Dates, Completion Date, planned Completion, order and timing, float, time risk allowances, health and safety, method statements, resources, Others' work | A tender programme offered under NEC must meet Cl 31.2 in full |
| NEC3/NEC4 Cl 31.1, 50.3 (NEC3) / 50.5 (NEC4) | If no programme is identified in the Contract Data, one is submitted within the period stated; a quarter of the Price for Work Done to Date is retained until accepted | The choice to identify or not is a commercial one, made knowingly |
| SCL Protocol 2nd ed., Core Principle 1 | Programme prepared and accepted early; records kept | The tender programme's assumption register is the first record |
| AACE RP 27R-03 (Schedule Classification System) | Schedule classes by maturity — Class 4/3 at bid, Class 2/1 for execution | Tender = Class 4 overall, Class 3 in the areas that carry risk |
| AACE RP 38R-06 | Basis documented | A short SBM at tender (assumptions, calendars, rates, milestones) — the full one is written for the baseline |
| GAO Schedule Assessment Guide, BP 1–4 | Capture all work; sequence; resource; realistic durations | Same standards, coarser detail |
| Convention (schedule-levels-1-to-5) | Level 3 = contract baseline; L2 rolled from it | Tender = L2, expanded to L3 after award |
🟢 Rule: Level 2 with Level 3 where the risk is; built from tender quantities and the estimator's rates on real calendars; every employer dependency a milestone; planned completion and contractual completion shown separately with the float between them named; preliminaries duration equals programme duration; assumptions listed and submitted; and if the contract is NEC, built to Cl 31.2 or not identified in the Contract Data at all.
How it actually works
1. What it must do — in order of consequence
| Job | Output | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Fix the time-related price | Site duration; peak manpower and plant months; accommodation and camp duration; summer and Ramadan months inside the period | Estimator — preliminaries, staff, plant, insurances, bonds |
| Show credible method and sequence | Sequence per area, major plant, temporary works, phasing | Tender adjudication; employer's technical evaluation |
| Test the employer's dates | Can the Time for Completion be met from the Commencement Date with the access, design and approval dates given? Where not, what qualification? | Bid manager; commercial |
| Identify long leads and employer dependencies | Procurement chains for the 10–20 items that drive the job; access, IFC, permit and free-issue dates as milestones | Procurement; risk register; later, the EOT record |
| Record the assumptions | Assumption register: numbered, each with the date or duration assumed and the source (tender document, query response, or contractor's assumption) | Contract negotiation; the Cl 8.3 / Cl 31 programme; every future claim |
2. Size and level
| Project | Activities | Level | Level 3 where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-rise building, 12–18 months | 250–400 | L2 | Structure cycle, façade, T&C |
| Hospital or data centre, 24–36 months | 400–700 | L2 | MEP systems, commissioning, phased handover |
| Infrastructure / linear, 24 months | 300–500 | L2 by chainage | Structures, utility diversions, traffic phases |
| Shutdown / turnaround, 30–60 days | 200–400 | L3 throughout | Everything is on the critical path |
Rule of thumb: one activity per major trade per floor or zone, plus procurement, approvals and milestones. A tender programme over 1,000 activities was built by expanding a template, not by planning the job.
3. Building it — the week
| Day | Task | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read the tender: Time for Completion, Commencement, sectional completions, key dates, access dates, employer-supplied items, approval periods, working-hour restrictions, permit regime | Conditions, particular conditions, employer's requirements, appendix to tender |
| 1 | Milestones node built first: commencement; every access date; every IFC / design-freeze date; every key date; planned completion; contractual completion (FOoB, reference to the appendix) | Tender documents; assumption register opened |
| 2 | Calendars: 6-day site 10 h with summer 8.5 h mid-Jun to mid-Sep for external work; Ramadan exceptions for the years the job spans; 7-day curing; office 5-day; authority-approval calendar per the tender's stated review periods | calendar-setup-and-holidays |
| 2–3 | WBS to level 3–4 per wbs-structure-design; procurement node with submittal → approval → fabrication → shipping → delivery per long-lead item | Tender BOQ structure; supplier quotations |
| 3–4 | Durations from tender quantities and the estimator's manhour rates: Manhours = Qty × rate; Duration = Manhours ÷ (crew × hours/day), rounded up; crew sizes agreed with the estimator and the proposed subcontractors; productivity factors for summer and height | crew-and-manhour-formulas; productivity-adjustment-factors |
| 4 | Logic: hard logic plus the method's soft logic; no constraints except the milestones; F9 | hard-logic-vs-soft-logic |
| 4 | Float position: planned completion vs contractual completion; TRA activities named where the risk register says so | float-ownership-and-contract |
| 5 | Reconcile with the estimate: programme duration = prelims months; peak manpower = camp and transport; plant months = plant schedule; concrete pours per month = batching capacity | Estimator sign-off |
| 5 | Narrative (2–4 pages), assumption register, histogram, Gantt at L1 and L2; short SBM | Bid submission |
4. The assumption register — the most valuable page in the bid
| # | Assumption | Value | Source | If wrong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A01 | Site access, whole site | Commencement + 0 | Appendix to Tender | Every date moves |
| A02 | Employer's IFC structural drawings | Commencement + 6 weeks | Tender query TQ-014 response | Structure start; 1 day per day |
| A03 | Municipality building permit | Employer to hold at commencement | Employer's Requirements §2.3 | Contractor cannot start; qualify if not confirmed |
| A04 | Consultant shop drawing review | 14 calendar days per cycle, two cycles allowed | Employer's Requirements §4.1 | Every submittal chain lengthens |
| A05 | Utility connections (DEWA / SEC / Kahramaa) | Application at month 3; energisation at month 14 | Contractor's assumption from prior jobs | T&C start; a frequent EOT |
| A06 | Free-issue chillers | Delivered month 11 | Employer's Requirements §7 | Plant room; T&C |
| A07 | Working hours | 6 days, 10 h; summer midday break per labour law | Contractor's assumption | Durations |
| A08 | Ramadan | 1 period within the programme, dates per lunar calendar | Contractor's assumption | Productivity 20–30% down for the month |
| A09 | Tower crane permit | 4 weeks from application | Contractor's assumption | Structure start |
Submitted with the bid, restated in the Cl 8.3 / Cl 31 programme narrative, and cited in the first notice when one fails. Without it, the bid assumed nothing and can prove nothing.
5. The float position — decide it, don't fall into it
| Position | Meaning | When |
|---|---|---|
| Planned completion = contractual completion | No terminal float shown; every day of delay is late completion | Common; weak under FIDIC where float ownership is silent |
| Planned completion 4–8 weeks earlier, gap unnamed | Terminal float exists; ownership argued later | Avoid — the gap gets used by the first delay regardless of cause |
| Planned completion earlier, gap as named TRA — activities | Contractor's contingency visible and owned | Recommended; mandatory content under NEC Cl 31.2 |
| Planned completion later than contractual | Bid cannot meet the date | Qualify the bid, or price acceleration, or don't bid the date |
Under FIDIC the choice is commercial. Under NEC the tender programme shows planned Completion, time risk allowances and float as required content — the choice is made for you.
6. NEC — identify it or not
| Choice | Effect |
|---|---|
| Programme identified in Contract Data Part 2 | Becomes the Accepted Programme at contract date (Cl 11.2(1)); assessed CEs measure against it from day one (Cl 63.3 / 63.5); it must meet Cl 31.2 in full |
| Not identified | First programme submitted within the period in Contract Data Part 1 (Cl 31.1); until accepted, one quarter of the Price for Work Done to Date is retained (Cl 50.3 NEC3 / 50.5 NEC4 — verify); early CEs assessed against a programme that doesn't yet exist as accepted |
Most contractors should identify it — and therefore build it to Cl 31.2 during the bid, which means L3 in the first six months, TRA shown, resources and method statements attached. A Cl 31.2 programme takes two to three weeks, not four days. Price the planning time.
7. After award — what changes
The tender programme is expanded to the Level 3 baseline (schedule-levels-1-to-5; schedule-basis-memorandum): same milestones, same assumptions restated, durations re-derived from the confirmed subcontractors' rates, logic detailed, procurement chains against real quotations, calendars re-dated. It is submitted under Cl 8.3 within 28 days (FIDIC) or per the Contract Data (NEC), accepted, and becomes BL0. The tender programme itself goes into the archive with the bid — and is never assigned as a baseline unless the contract made it one.
📜 When the tender programme binds
| Situation | Effect |
|---|---|
| FIDIC, tender programme not a listed contract document | Persuasive record of intended method and assumptions; not binding on sequence; the Cl 8.3 programme governs |
| FIDIC, employer lists it in the Contract Agreement (Cl 1.5) | Binding as a contract document; changes need agreement; assumption register becomes critical |
| NEC, identified in Contract Data | Accepted Programme; binding for CE assessment until the next accepted revision |
| Any contract, tender narrative makes a statement of method or resource | May be relied on; write only what the bid can deliver |
🟥 Where people go wrong
- Back-fitting to the employer's date. Durations shortened until the bar ends on the right day; the estimate prices what the programme shows; the site delivers what the rates allow. Build from the rates, read the date, then decide whether to qualify, accelerate or price the risk.
- Preliminaries and programme disagree. Programme 16 months, prelims priced at 18, or the reverse. Reconciled on day 5, signed by the estimator, or the bid carries a gap nobody owns.
- No procurement, no approvals. Structure starts week 3 with no IFC, no permit, no rebar delivery. The 10–20 long leads and every approval cycle are in the network, and half of them are on the critical path in the first six months.
- Calendar copied from the last job. 5-day week, no summer, no Ramadan, on a Gulf site. Real calendars from day 2; the summer alone is 15% on external work for three months.
- No assumption register. The bid assumed IFC at week 6 and the utility connection at month 14, and in month 9 nobody can prove it. Numbered register, submitted, restated.
- Under NEC, identified in the Contract Data without meeting Cl 31.2. Rejected on day one for missing TRA, resources or method statements; retention bites; the first CE is assessed against a programme the contractor never wanted as the accepted one. Build to Cl 31.2 or leave it unidentified — deliberately.
- Tender programme assigned as BL0 after award. 300 activities as the contract baseline; every monthly BEI meaningless. The L3 baseline is a new document developed from it.
⚖️ When you're challenged
"The client's date is 15 December. Make the programme end there." From the tender quantities and our rates it ends 4 February — seven weeks late. We can show 15 December with a night shift on the structure and a second façade crew, priced at roughly 1.8 million, or qualify the date, or bid the date and carry the risk knowingly. What we can't do is shorten the bars and leave the price alone — the site will build to the rates, not the bars.
"Why does the tender programme have 380 activities? The last one had 120." The last one had no procurement, no approvals and no milestones for the employer's dates — and it cost us the IFC argument. Two hundred of these are the long-lead chains and the approval cycles that the estimate depends on. The Level 1 and Level 2 views for the adjudication are one page each.
"It's NEC. Just put the tender programme in the Contract Data — it's what they asked for." Then it's the Accepted Programme from the day we sign and every compensation event is measured against it. It needs planned Completion, the time risk allowances, resources and method statements to meet Cl 31.2, or it'll be rejected and a quarter of our first valuations held. That's two more weeks of planning time in the bid, and it's worth it — or we leave it unidentified and submit within four weeks of the start. Either is fine; drifting into it isn't.
"The estimator says 20 months of prelims. Your programme says 18." Then one of us is wrong and the bid carries a two-month gap. My 18 is from the rates and the calendars; if the estimator has allowed for something the programme doesn't show, it goes in the programme. If not, the prelims drop to 18. We reconcile before submission, not after award.
📄 Related pages
- Schedule Levels 1 to 5 — why tender is L2 and the baseline is L3
- Crew and Manhour Formulas — durations from quantities and rates
- Productivity Adjustment Factors — summer and height in the tender durations
- Calendar Setup and Holidays — the calendars built on day 2
- Milestones and Key Dates — the milestone node built first
- Procurement and Long-Lead Items — the chains that drive the first six months
- Float ownership and the contract — the float position and the TRA
- NEC Accepted Programme — what Cl 31.2 requires if the programme is identified
- Schedule Basis Memorandum — the full basis written for the baseline
✏️ Worked example
Tender for a 10-storey office building with two basements in Dubai, FIDIC 1999-based conditions, Time for Completion 20 months from Commencement, sectional completion of the podium retail at month 16.
| Item | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Activities | 360 | L2; L3 on structure, façade, T&C |
| Calendars | Site 6d 10h (summer 8.5h 15 Jun–15 Sep, two summers in the period); Curing 7d 24h; Office 5d 8h; Review 7d (14-day cycles per ER §4.1) | Tender documents; labour law |
| Milestones | Commencement; IFC structural (C+6 wk, TQ-014); permit (C+0, ER §2.3); DEWA energisation (C+14 mo, assumed); free-issue chillers (C+11 mo, ER §7); podium sectional completion (C+16 mo, FOoB); planned completion (C+18.5 mo); contractual completion (C+20 mo, FOoB) | Appendix to Tender; assumption register A01–A09 |
| Structure | 2 basements + 10 floors; 8-day cycle per floor from the structure sub's rate (11,400 m² typical floor ÷ crew output), 6-day calendar; two summers within the structure period → 8.5 h days, factor 0.9 applied | crew-and-manhour-formulas; productivity-adjustment-factors |
| Façade | Unitised; procurement chain 26 weeks (shop drawings 4, approval 4, fabrication 14, shipping 4); install from L3 when structure at L7 | Supplier quotation Q-2231 |
| Long leads in network | 14 items; 6 on the critical path in months 1–7 (rebar mill certs, tower crane permit, façade, chillers (free-issue), lifts, MV switchgear) | Procurement node |
| Critical path at tender | Permit → excavation and shoring → raft → structure → façade → finishes L10–L8 → T&C → handover | Longest Path |
| Float position | Planned completion C+18.5 mo; contractual C+20 mo; 6 weeks shown as "TRA — structure cycle" (3 wk) and "TRA — T&C and authority approvals" (3 wk), as named activities | Risk register; float-ownership-and-contract |
| Prelims reconciliation | Programme 20 months; estimate prelims 20 months; peak 640 operatives month 9–12 → camp 700 beds; tower cranes 2 × 14 months | Estimator sign-off 3 days before submission |
| Qualification | DEWA energisation at month 14 is a contractor assumption; bid qualified that later energisation entitles EOT | Commercial letter |
| Time to build | 6 working days, one senior planner, with estimator input on days 3 and 5 | — |
After award the 360 activities became a 2,400-activity Level 3 baseline over five weeks; the milestone list and assumption register went in unchanged; the structure cycle was re-derived at 8 days from the appointed sub's confirmed crew. In month 9 the energisation date slipped to month 17; the notice cited assumption A05 and the tender qualification letter.
📖 References
- FIDIC Conditions of Contract for Construction, 1999, Cl 1.5, 4.1, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3; 2017, Cl 1.5, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 (check the edition in your contract)
- NEC3 / NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract, Cl 11.2(1), 31.1, 31.2, 50.3 (NEC3) / 50.5 (NEC4), 63.3 (NEC3) / 63.5 (NEC4) (check the edition in your contract)
- SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol, 2nd ed. (2017), Core Principle 1
- AACE International RP 27R-03, Schedule Classification System
- AACE International RP 38R-06, Documenting the Schedule Basis
- GAO Schedule Assessment Guide (GAO-16-89G), Best Practices 1–4
- PMI Practice Standard for Scheduling, 2nd ed.
From the field
Experience from working planners. Unreviewed — read it as experience, not guidance.
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