Narrative Score Criteria Summary

When you click the narrative score hyperlink, the Narrative Score dialog box displays, which is a read-only view of the detailed score summary.

The Narrative Score dialog box contains the following information:

• Project
• Control Account
• Status Date
• Date Generated
• Narrative Score

The narrative score is based on the following criteria:

• Challenges and Mitigation: The narrative provides detailed and factual explanations of specific project challenges faced during the reporting period. It also outlines how these challenges were mitigated.
• Clarity and Conciseness: The narrative clearly defines variances and explains why they occurred. It avoids redundancy and focuses on significant variances.
• Completeness: The narrative covers all significant factors contributing to the variance, including both internal and external elements. It uses both quantitative and qualitative information to illustrate the variance and its components.
• Future Outlook: The narrative addresses how the project team plans to handle similar challenges or opportunities in the future. It proposes specific, actionable items to mitigate future risks.
• Language and Style: The narrative prioritizes clarity in language. It uses straightforward terms to convey complex ideas and avoids technical jargon that might hinder understanding.
• Metrics and Quantification: The narrative includes quantifiable earned value metrics, such as percentages and numbers, to showcase progress.
• Structure: The narrative follows a specific flow, including an introduction, background, score, factor identification, impact assessment, root cause analysis, mitigation strategies, lessons learned, outlook, and recommendations.

The totals in these seven categories are non-weighted averages, resulting in an overall score for the narratives. This score ranges from 1 (indicating that the text does not meet the analysis criteria) to 5 (indicating alignment with the analysis rules). You can generate scores multiple times, adjusting and rerunning the narrative to reflect changes.

The scoring is based on the narratives and is not judged separately for the narratives entered in each category. This means that if all information entered in the Narrative pane is set to the Explanation category, it will be evaluated the same way as the narratives that are segregated between the Impact and Corrective Action categories. In addition, there is no required field where the narratives must be populated.