The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) 14-point assessment helps the Department of Defense evaluate schedules to see whether they are well-built and adhere to best practices that are important to the success of the project. The DCMA 14 Point Assessment Metrics with EV Method is used to analyze MSP Projects with LOE tasks.
Most of the DCMA 14-Point metrics look only at activities that are baselined with a duration > 0d. The two exceptions are the
Critical Path Test and the
BEI. This is in accordance with the DCMA guidelines so as not to consider activities that have not been approved to be baselined.
The best practices are broken down into a list of 14 checks:
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Logic
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This metric looks for incomplete tasks with missing logic links or links that don't make sense. The number of tasks without predecessors and/or successors should not exceed 5%. The formula is: Missing Logic % = (# of tasks missing logic / # of incomplete tasks) x 100.
|
| Leads
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This metric looks for incomplete tasks that have logic links with leads (negative lag) in predecessor relationships. Ideally, there should not be any leads as they distort total float. The formula is: Leads % = (# of logic links with leads / # of logic links) x 100.
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| Lags
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This metric looks for incomplete tasks that have lags in predecessor relationships. The number of lags shouldn't exceed 5%. The formula is: Lags % = (# of logic links with lags / # of logic links) x 100.
|
| Relationship Types
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This metric looks for incomplete tasks containing each relationship type. Because the Finish-to-Start (FS) relationship is the most logical, it should account for at least 90% of the relationship types being used. The check counts uses the number of Start-to-Start (SS), Finish-to-Finish (FF) and Start-to-Finish (SF) relationship types to work out the % of Finish-to-Start (FS) relationship types. The formula is: % of FS Relationship Types = (# of logic links with FS Relationships / # of logic links) x 100.
|
| Hard Constraints
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This metric counts the number of hard constraints used in the incomplete tasks. Hard constraints may prevent the schedule from being logic-driven and should be used sparingly. The number of tasks with hard constraints shouldn't exceed 5%. The formula is: Hard Constraint % = (Total # of incomplete tasks with hard constraints / Total # of incomplete tasks) x 100.
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| High Float
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This metric counts incomplete tasks with a total float greater than 44 working days. This may indicate missing predecessors / successors. The formula is: High Float % = (Total # of incomplete tasks with high float / Total # of incomplete tasks) x 100.
|
| Negative Float
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This metric counts incomplete tasks with total float less than 0 working days. These tasks should have an explanation and corrective action plan. The formula is: Negative Float % = (Total # of incomplete tasks with negative float / Total # of incomplete tasks) x 100.
|
| High Duration
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This metric looks at incomplete tasks that have a baseline duration greater than 44 working days and a baseline start date within the detail planning period or rolling wave. This helps to determine whether you can break a task into two or more tasks or leave it as a single task. The number of tasks with the higher duration should not exceed 5%. The formula is: High Duration % = (Total # of incomplete tasks with high duration / Total # of incomplete tasks) x 100.
|
| Invalid Dates
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This metric looks at incomplete tasks that have no actual dates in the future beyond the status date and no forecast dates in the past before the status date. There should not be any invalid dates in the schedule.
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| Resources
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This metric reports on all tasks that have a duration greater than zero and have currency or hours assigned. Some projects may not have resources loaded directly into the schedule. If they are loaded into the schedule, then this metric uses the following formula to identify missing resources: Missing Resource % = (Total # of incomplete tasks with missing resource / Total # of incomplete tasks) x 100.
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| Missed Tasks
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This metric identifies tasks that have finished late compared to the baseline. It helps to identify how well the schedule is meeting the baseline plan and is a good check to gauge whether the project will finish on time. The formula is: Missed % = (# of tasks with actual/forecast finish date past baseline date / # of tasks with baseline finish dates on or before status date) x 100.
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| Critical Path Test
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This metric checks the integrity of the critical path. The metric checks whether introducing a delay into the schedule results in the projects finish date being equally delayed.
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| Critical Path Length Index (CPLI)
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This metric gauges the project can realistically be completed on time. It measures the ratio of the project critical path length plus the project total float to the project critical path length.
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| Baseline Execution Index (BEI)
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This metric determines how many activities are behind or ahead of schedule against the baseline.
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