Successful construction projects live or die by the quality of the schedule, yet some 20 years after scheduling software became the dominant tool for tracking a project's critical path, experts say it's still not to be trusted.
Andy Ness, a construction attorney for law firm Jones Day, often talks to industry groups about the trouble he finds at the intersection of law and project scheduling software. In his opinion, legal disputes that rely on forensic analysis of a schedule are too often thwarted by "smoke and mirrors" software features, which can undermine the Daubert standard that governs expert testimony.