Topic hub
Schedule quality, DCMA 14-point and Primavera P6
What a defensible programme looks like and how to read one that someone else built. DCMA 14-point assessment, S-curve failure modes, baseline integrity, and challenging a contractor’s schedule.
About this topic
Schedule quality is what separates a programme that can be defended in a compensation event dispute or a gateway review from one that cannot. The schedule is the spine of the controls function: it is what the QRA samples against, what the EVM measures progress against, and what the risk register maps onto. A schedule built without logic discipline, without proper resource loading, or without an honest critical path will quietly degrade every other controls output that depends on it.
The DCMA 14-point assessment — published by the US Defence Contract Management Agency in 2009 and adopted widely on UK infrastructure programmes — is the de-facto health check for an integrated schedule. The 14 metrics test logic completeness, hard-constraint usage, lag and lead patterns, float distribution, critical-path integrity, missed-task ratios, the BEI/CEI variance pair, and several others. Passing all 14 is rarely the right target; understanding what each metric is actually telling you is.
On UK programmes, the dominant scheduling tools are Oracle Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project. P6 is the standard on infrastructure (Network Rail, Highways, AMP, defence supply chains) and on programmes large enough to need resource and cost loading at the activity level. MS Project is more common on smaller works and within tier 1 contractors’ internal estates. The choice has implications for resource modelling, integration with risk tools, and how the schedule is exchanged across the supply chain.
The guides below cover reading and challenging a schedule you did not build, the failure modes that make an S-curve visually plausible but managerially misleading, baseline integrity under change control, and the practitioner mechanics of working with P6 on programmes you have inherited.
Guides on this topic
9 guides in this cluster
Guide
Critical Path Method: How UK Programmes Actually Use CPM
CPM textbook explanations stop at forward pass and backward pass. UK infrastructure, defence and nuclear programmes need more — near-critical paths, risk-adjusted criticality, NEC4 Clause 32 alignment, and how DCMA-14 actually tests the network logic. A practitioner's guide to using CPM on real programmes.
12 min read
Guide
Reading a DCMA 14 Result Properly
What each metric actually catches, the metrics that mislead more than they help, and how to write a credible review report — not just paste the dashboard.
12 min read
Guide
The DCMA 14-Point Schedule Assessment — What It Is and How UK Programmes Use It
A practical guide to the DCMA 14-point schedule health check — what each metric measures, what the thresholds mean, and how to use it on UK infrastructure programmes.
10 min read
Guide
Why Your S-Curve Is Lying to You
S-curves are the most widely used reporting tool in project controls — and one of the most routinely misleading. Here is what goes wrong and how to fix it.
9 min read
Guide
The Baseline You Can Actually Defend
How to set a controls baseline that survives the project — scope, schedule, cost — and how to tell legitimate rebaselining from commercial cover-up.
11 min read
Guide
Primavera P6 for People Who Inherited It
A practical two-hour audit checklist for the PM or planner who has just been handed someone else's P6 database — what to check, what to fix, and what to leave alone.
10 min read
Guide
Primavera P6 vs Microsoft Project — Which Is Right for Your Programme?
An honest comparison for UK project controls practitioners — what each tool does well, where each falls short, and how to decide without the vendor pitch.
8 min read
Guide
Reading a Contractor's Schedule You Didn't Build
What to check first when a new programme lands on your desk mid-project, how to tell an honest schedule from a padded one, and how to brief your client without starting a war.
11 min read
Guide
How to Challenge a Contractor's Schedule (Without Starting a Fight)
The questions that distinguish a robust programme from a presentation schedule — and how to ask them without triggering a dispute.
8 min read
Frequently asked
Schedule quality, DCMA and Primavera P6 — questions we get asked
- What is the DCMA 14-point assessment?
- The DCMA 14-point assessment is a fourteen-metric integrity check on an integrated schedule, published by the US Defense Contract Management Agency in 2009. It tests logic completeness, hard-constraint usage, lag/lead patterns, float distribution, critical-path quality, missed-task and high-duration ratios, and the BEI/CEI execution metrics. It is the de-facto health check on UK infrastructure and defence programmes.
- Should every schedule pass all 14 DCMA tests?
- No. The DCMA tests are diagnostic, not pass/fail. Some thresholds (for example, hard constraints) are appropriate to fail when there is a contractually-imposed milestone. The right question is what each metric is telling you about the schedule’s underlying logic and integrity, not whether the heat-map is green.
- Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project — which is right for my programme?
- On UK infrastructure programmes (rail, highways, water, nuclear, defence supply chains) Primavera P6 is the dominant standard, particularly where resource-loading and cost-loading at activity level are required. MS Project is more commonly seen on smaller works packages and inside tier 1 contractors’ internal estates. The decision turns on programme size, integration needs, and supply-chain conventions.
- What does the NEC4 Accepted Programme actually require?
- NEC4 Clauses 31 and 32 require a formally Accepted Programme that shows the planned dates for each operation, the order and timing of work, float, time risk allowances, health and safety requirements, and the resources required. Crucially, it must be kept up to date — revisions are submitted with each Compensation Event quotation and at intervals set in Contract Data. A schedule that is not formally Accepted is contractually a weaker document at dispute.
- How often should a baseline be re-baselined?
- A baseline should only be re-baselined when its predictive value has collapsed — typically after a major scope change, a Compensation Event regime that has accumulated unresolved impact, or a significant change in delivery strategy. Re-baselining to mask schedule slippage destroys the EVM signal and the audit trail at gateway. The defensible pattern is: baseline once at sanction, manage variance against it via formal change control, re-baseline rarely and with explicit governance sign-off.
- What is the DCMA Baseline Execution Index (BEI)?
- BEI is the ratio of tasks completed to tasks that should have completed by the data date — a measure of how well the programme is executing against its baseline. A BEI below 0.95 is conventionally flagged. Paired with the Critical Path Length Index (CPLI), it gives a quick read on whether the programme is recovering, holding, or losing ground. Both metrics need to be read alongside the rest of the DCMA pack; in isolation either can be gamed by progress-recording practice.
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