The chance of losing a claim is a lot higher than any contractor in the construction business wants to admit. Contractors convince themselves of any number of things in hopes that “it” won’t happen to them. Periodic and regular checkpoints across the lifecycle of a project help to identify issues while there is still time for them to be addressed. This review process provides a solid offense for winning claims. Access to information from across the project is critical. There are five essentials to strategic project management: scope, resource, time, money and documentation. If the job shifts from perfect to imperfect, these five critical components will determine whether the contractor makes money on the job or if there is enough information to win a claim. Part one in this series covered scope and resource.