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What Is The DCMA 14-Point Schedule Assessment

The DCMA 14-point schedule assessment is used to evaluate project schedules based on 14 best practice criteria. It checks for complete logic, unnecessary lags or leads, appropriate relationship types, constrained activities, float values, activity durations, resource loading, adherence to the baseline schedule, and integrity of the critical path. Following the DCMA assessment helps ensure a schedule is well-built and manageable.

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Henry Condori Fernandez
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297 views5 pages

What Is The DCMA 14-Point Schedule Assessment

The DCMA 14-point schedule assessment is used to evaluate project schedules based on 14 best practice criteria. It checks for complete logic, unnecessary lags or leads, appropriate relationship types, constrained activities, float values, activity durations, resource loading, adherence to the baseline schedule, and integrity of the critical path. Following the DCMA assessment helps ensure a schedule is well-built and manageable.

Uploaded by

Henry Condori Fernandez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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2/11/2018 What is the DCMA 14-point schedule assessment?

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Blog > Analysis > What is the DCMA 14-point schedule assessment?

What is the DCMA 14-point schedule


assessment?
MAY 15, 2014 BY MICHAEL LEPAGE — 4 COMMENTS

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In 2005, US Defense Contract


Management Agency implemented a
14-point schedule assessment to help
the Department of Defense evaluate
the enormous volume of contracts and
schedules they were tasked with
managing.

Years later, the DCMA’s 14-point Schedule Assessment has become a guideline
that is widely used and has been incorporated into many software tools such as
Acumen Fuse and Primavera P6 EPPM.

But what exactly is the DCMA 14-point schedule assessment checking?

Well, essentially it’s evaluating whether a schedule is well-built – whether it


adheres to a set of best practices considered important to the success and
manageability of a project. These best practices are broken down into a list of 14
checks

1) Checking the Logic


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2/11/2018 What is the DCMA 14-point schedule assessment?

Are is the logic complete? Are there missing links. We all know that a schedule is a
network, and if that network is not complete because of missing logic, an accurate
Critical Path is not possible.

2) Looking for Leads


Negative Lags are often referred to as “Lead Time”. Negative lags can cause all
sorts of problems. Plus they can be confusing. Here, the goal is to have NO
negative lags in your schedule

3) Looking for Lags


The DCMA is a bit more forgiving when it comes to positive lags, but the goal here
is to minimize their use in your schedule. The goal is no more than 5% of
relationships should have a lag. Here’s how you might nd those lags.

4) The Right Relationship Types


P6 and other software supports 4 relationships types, but that doesn’t mean you
should build a schedule using only Start-Start relationships. Finish-Start is best.
DCMA says your schedule should use Finish-Start 90% of the time (or more).

5) How ’bout those Hard Constraints


Hard constraints can really a ect logic (as we’ve told you) and can disable a
schedule from being logic-driven. I say you can do without hard constraints. DCMA
says don’t have hard constraints on more than 5% of all constrained activities.

6) Rein-in your Total Float


44 days is all you get. High Float activities may not be linked properly and can
cause havoc on your Critical Path. This check looks for activities with Total Float
values over 44 days. Again, the goal is less than 5% of activities can have Float
values of 44 days or more.

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7) Negative Float is Never Good


If you’re followup these checks up to here, you may not have a problem with
Negative Float. Ideally DCMA says avoid having Negative Float in your schedule. If
you do, make sure you’ve documented a plan to mitigate being late.

8) Break Down Those Long Durations


When is an Activity too long? When it’s longer than 2 months, says the folks at
DCMA. You’ll want to limit long duration activities to no more than 5% of all
Activities. Or just break those long activities down into a series of shorter ones for
more detail.

9) Check for Invalid Dates


No Actual dates in the future, beyond your Data Date; and no Forecast dates in the
past before your Data Date. Primavera P6 may not allow some of these conditions,
but remember these checks can be applied to a schedule built in any software
package.

10) Load it up with Resources and Costs


DCMA likes their schedules to be resource and cost-loaded. And if you are
following this path as well, make sure not to leave out workable Activities;
milestones excluded.

11) Subvert Activity Slippage


We all want to deliver on time. This check looks at how many activities have
nished late as compared to the baseline. It’s a good generic check to see if your
project will deliver on time or not.

12) Critical Path Integrity


The 12th check is one that tests the integrity of your schedule’s Critical Path,
looking for uidity driven by good logic linking. Here DMCA checks that introducing
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a delay in the schedule results in the project’s nish date being equally delayed.

13) Critical Path Length Index (CPLI)


This check is a bit di cult to explain. I’ve deferred to Ron Winter’s explanation who
sums it up this way:

“The Critical Path Length Index (CPLI) is one of the ‘Trip Wire checks’ that is
supposed to gauge the realism of completing the project on time. Most
construction schedulers will nd this test a little bizarre. We are to measure the
ratio of the project critical path length plus the project total oat to the project
critical path length. The critical path length is the time in work days from the
current status date to the “end of the program.” The target number is 1.0 with a
value of less than 95% as a failure.”

Thank you, Ron.

14) Baseline Execution Index (BEI)


The Baseline Execution Index is meant to help you understand how well you are
performing against your project’s baseline. The BEI sums up how many activities
are ahead or behind schedule against the baseline. A BEI of 1.0 means you are
right on track. DCMA says a BEI of less than 0.95 puts you on notice.

You can get more information from DCMA on the 14-point schedule check here.

So should you use these guidelines as outlined by the DCMA?

Well, there are di erent views on that question. Most of these guidelines are
accepted as best practices for practitioners in many industries. And most of them
are easy to check manually within Primavera P6, with the exception of the last 3
that are a bit more involved.

Whether you think the DCMA’s 14 checks result in a good schedule or not, I’m fairly
certain we will be seeing more of them in the future as more and more tools start
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2/11/2018 What is the DCMA 14-point schedule assessment?

to implement them in the software.

Filed Under: Analysis, CPM Scheduling in Primavera P6, Planning Tagged With: Best Practices, CPM scheduling

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About Michael Lepage


Michael is an avid project controls blogger and is the Chief Learning
O cer here at Plan Academy. Michael has taught 1000s professionals how to
use project controls software like Primavera P6 over the past 10 years through
his online courses and tutorials. Michael is a member of AACE, the Guild of
Project Controls and holds his PMP certi cation from PMI.

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