GAO Metric Descriptions

These metrics have been developed to support analysis relative to the GAO Schedule Assessment guide.

Field	Description
Activities	The schedule should reflect all activities (steps, events, outcomes, and so on) as defined in the program's work breakdown structure, to include activities to be performed by both the government and its contractors. Use these metrics to review, for example, the total number of activities, including total summary, milestone, and total remaining.
Sequence	The schedule should be planned so that it can meet program critical dates. Use these metrics to assess whether the activities are logically sequenced in the order that they are to be carried out. In particular, you can identify activities that must finish prior to the start of other activities (that is, predecessor activities) as well as activities that cannot begin until other activities are completed (that is, successor activities). By doing so, interdependencies among activities that collectively lead to the accomplishment of events or milestones can be established and used as a basis for guiding work and measuring progress.
Resources	The schedule should realistically reflect what resources (i.e., labor, material, and overhead) are needed to do the work, whether all required resources will be available when they are needed, and whether any funding or time constraints exist. Use these metrics to assess the number of activities that are assigned resources and the work hours.
Duration	The schedule should reflect how long each activity will take to execute. In determining the duration of each activity, the same rationale, data, and assumptions used for cost estimating should be used for schedule estimating. Further, these durations should be as short as possible and they should have specific start and end dates. Excessively long periods needed to execute an activity should prompt further decomposition of the activity so that shorter execution durations will result.
Integration	The schedule should be horizontally integrated, meaning that it should link the products and outcomes associated with already sequenced activities. These links are commonly referred to as "hand offs" and serve to verify that activities are arranged in the right order to achieve aggregated products or outcomes. The schedule should also be vertically integrated, meaning that traceability exists among varying levels of activities and supporting tasks and sub-tasks. Such mapping or alignment among levels enables different groups to work to the same master schedule.
Critical Path	Using scheduling software, the critical path-the longest duration path through the sequenced list of activities-should be identified. The establishment of a program's critical path is necessary for examining the effects of any activity slipping along this path. Potential problems that may occur on or near the critical path should also be identified and reflected in the scheduling of the time for high risk activities.
Float	The schedule should identify float — the time that a predecessor activity can slip before the delay affects successor activities — so that schedule flexibility can be determined. As a general rule, activities along the critical path typically have the least amount of float. Total float is the amount of time an activity can slip before it delays the entire project. If you have a large amount of high float on an activity or path, it may indicate that schedule logic is missing or invalid.
Risk inputs	These metrics focus on the quality of risk input values being used for risk analysis. Data about program schedule risks are incorporated into a statistical simulation to predict the level of confidence in meeting a program’s completion date.
Risk Exposure	These metrics focus on the risk output values. For example, criticality is a measure as to how often an activity falls on the critical path during a risk simulation. It measures the frequency of risk and not the size of risk. Use this metric in conjunction with other metrics such as total cost to determine how often these activities will have an impact on the project. Includes normal activities and milestones that are planned or in-progress.
Dates	The schedule should use logic and durations in order to reflect realistic start and completion dates for program activities. The schedule should be continually monitored to determine when forecasted completion dates differ from the planned dates, which can be used to determine whether schedule variances will affect downstream work. Maintaining the integrity of the schedule logic is not only necessary to reflect true status, but is also required before conducting a schedule risk analysis. The schedule should avoid logic overrides and artificial constraint dates that are chosen to create a certain result on paper. To ensure that the schedule is properly updated, individuals trained in critical path method scheduling should be responsible for statusing the schedule.
Baseline Start / Baseline Finish	A projects performance is measured against the baseline schedule. The baseline schedule is designated the target schedule, subject to a configuration management control process, against which project performance can be measured, monitored, and reported. The schedule should be continually monitored so as to reveal when forecasted completion dates differ from planned dates and whether schedule variances will affect downstream work.