SuperChange: Expert System for Analysis of Changes Claims
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 118, Issue 2
Abstract
Disputes and claims occur frequently in the construction process. The resulting litigation wastefully consumes important resources like time, money, and especially project‐engineering talent. Many contract disputes could be avoided if the disputing parties took fast action and were better informed. This paper reports on an ongoing research project to develop an expert system to educate and advise inexperienced site engineers about the legal consequences of construction disputes. The part of the system described in this paper is called SuperChange. It evaluates the validity of claims brought under the Changes clause found in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). SuperChange supports decisions made by site engineers in several important ways. First, SuperChange guides the user through the analysis by controlling the direction of the analysis based on previous user responses. By doing so, the system does not allow the site engineer to forget a crucial part of the analysis and at the same time trains the site engineer in the proper components of an analysis. The second way in which SuperChange supports the site engineer is by providing a comprehensive, hyper‐text based, context‐sensitive help system. The help system can provide explanation, court citations, examples, and quotations all related to the particular question at hand. The final way the system supports analysis is by providing a report‐writing capability that can be used by the site engineer's superiors to review judgments and conclusions.
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References
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Copyright © 1992 ASCE.
History
Published online: Jun 1, 1992
Published in print: Jun 1992
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