Posted on: November 25, 2020 Posted by: zerofloat Comments: 0

DCMA 14-point Schedule Assessment is a project management guideline established on 14 metrics that provide the possibility to make a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the schedule. The DCMA (Defense Contract Management Agency) introduced it in 2005 to ensure projects worth over 20 million dollars were following best practice guidelines in the US Defence Department.

The DCMA 14-Point Assessment

1. Logic – Is the schedule logical? Schedule logic involves scheduling tasks; Are all the predecessor, and successor tasks concurrent? Missing links need to be resolved because without schedule logic an accurate Critical Path will not be possible. The number of activities that are missing a predecessor, a successor or both should not exceed 5% of the activities within the schedule.

2. Leads – are not allowed in scheduling as they are confusing and disrupt the flow of the schedule. Leads are often replaced with positive lags, but this isn’t always the best alternative. It is better to have shorter known scopes of work tasks connected by FS relationships, with no lags. The DCMA requires no leads (0%)

3. Lags – The DCMA does allow positive lags but has set a limit for use in a schedule. The limit for lags is no more than 5% of activity relationships. The best option is to replace lags with tasks describing the effort or process, such as cure time. Lags are limited to 5% in order to support schedule clarity. The total number of activities with lags should not exceed 5% of the activities within the schedule.


4. FS Relationships – Even though Primavera P6 and Deltek Acumen Fuse both support all relationship types, the DCMA assessment states that 90% (or more) of schedule dependencies should be Finish-Start (FS). Start-Start (SS) are acceptable, but building a whole schedule using SS is obviously unacceptable. The total number of activities with Finish to Start (FS) logic links >90%. Non-typical tasks are limited to <10 % of total tasks.


5. Hard Constraints – can really affect logic and disable a schedule from being logic-driven. The DCMA assessment states that hard constraints should be limited to 5% of uncompleted tasks. Constraints of any type are discouraged and a schedule should work without any.

6. High Float – activities may not be linked properly and can cause stress on the Critical Path. Total Float values are limited to 44 days, therefore review tasks that have greater than 2 months of total float and limit their usage to 5% of incomplete tasks.


7. Negative Float – Schedules that have negative float tasks are already behind. Ideally, the DCMA says to avoid having a negative float in your schedule. If there is a negative float, make sure it is accompanied by a documented plan to mitigate being late.


8. High Duration Tasks – Limit long-duration tasks to 5% of incomplete tasks. Task durations should be no longer than two months in order to support schedule updating and reporting efforts. Break long activities down into a series of shorter ones for more detail.


9. Invalid Dates – Forecasted (future work) work should not be in the past and actual (completed work) work should not be in the future. Invalid dates are not allowed under any circumstance; this will avoid illogical situations where future work is planned for the past and completed work happened in the future.


10. Resources – Resource loading is not a requirement, but the DCMA like schedules to be resource and cost-loaded. If you follow this path make sure the resource-loaded schedule is completely loaded. All activities except milestones must have a cost or associated resource.


11. Missed Tasks – This check looks at how many activities have finished late compared to the baseline date, monitoring excessive slippage. Only 5% of activities can slip from their finish baseline dates. This metric is a conservative and retrospective measure of schedule progress, but it’s a good generic check to see if your project will deliver on time or not.

12. Critical Path Test – ensures the schedule has one continuous linkage from project start to finish. It tests the integrity of a schedule’s Critical Path, looking for fluidity driven by good logic linking.


13. Critical Path Length Index (CPLI) is a forward-looking gauge that assesses the required efficiency to complete the project on schedule. It measures the ratio of the project critical path length and the project total float to the project critical path length. The critical path length is the time in workdays from the current date to the completion of the project. The target number is 1.0 and schedules that have a CLPI less than 0.95 require further review.


14. Baseline Execution Index (BEI) is an early warning indicator that a schedule is in trouble of not meeting the deadline. Most scheduling software doesn’t have a BEI variable, but it is possible to compute the ratio yourself or purchase an additional scheduling software supplement. The BEI ratios advanced, nontrivial, and purposeful warning makes the computation worth the effort. A BEI of 1.0 means that the schedule is on the right track.

In summary

The DCMA 14-Point assessment is a rigorous set of schedule quality guidelines. Schedules submitted to the DoD have to pass this assessment before projects are approved. Although this assessment was originally introduced for DoD schedules, it has become an industry-standard metric and is a useful resource for understanding best scheduling practices.

Although the DCMA 14-Point assessment offers a comprehensive schedule inspection that provides an analysis of schedule quality, there are no guarantees that your project outcome will be successful.

While satisfying these guidelines doesn’t necessarily mean the schedule is feasible, the project still needs to schedule full scope and understands execution and logic, not satisfying them almost certainly means it is not.

Need help? Explore how zerofloat can help you control your project.

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