What the DCMA 14-Point Check Actually Measures
The Defense Contract Management Agency developed its 14-point schedule assessment as a standardized method for evaluating the quality and integrity of contractor-submitted CPM schedules on government programs. The check has since been adopted widely by transit authorities, hospital systems, airport programs, and major owner-rep firms as a baseline acceptance requirement for P6 schedules on complex construction projects.
The 14 assessment points evaluate schedule completeness, logic integrity, constraint usage, float health, and baseline execution realism. Each point has a defined threshold — for example, open ends must be below 5% of total activities — and a schedule is scored pass/fail against each threshold.
Failure 1: Open Ends (Missing Logic)
What it is: An "open end" is an activity that has no predecessor (except for the project start) or no successor (except for the project finish). Open ends break the CPM calculation and create float sinks — places where total float accumulates artificially because activities have no downstream logic to consume it.
DCMA threshold: Open end activities should be less than 5% of total activities.
How to fix in P6: Run the Schedule Check function (Tools > Schedule Checker) and enable the "Activities with no predecessors" and "Activities with no successors" checks. For each open-end activity identified, add the appropriate Finish-to-Start or Start-to-Start relationship to close the logic gap. Do not use "Start No Earlier Than" constraints as a substitute for predecessor logic.
Failure 2: High Float Activities
What it is: Activities with abnormally high total float — typically defined as greater than 44 workdays — signal one of three problems: missing successor logic, inflated duration estimates, or incorrect calendar assignments. High float activities are not on or near the critical path, but they indicate that the schedule logic is incomplete.
DCMA threshold: Activities with total float greater than 44 workdays should be less than 5% of total activities.
How to fix in P6: Filter for activities with Total Float > 44. For each, verify that all successor relationships are correctly established and that the activity's duration is realistic. Pay particular attention to activities near project milestones — high float on a milestone predecessor chain often signals a logic disconnect that will cause problems in later updates.
Failure 3: Negative Float
What it is: Negative float indicates that an activity cannot be completed by its required date given the current schedule logic. It always signals one of two things: a constraint is creating an impossible date requirement, or actual progress has slipped the critical path past an imposed completion date.
DCMA threshold: Activities with negative total float should be less than 5% of total activities.
How to fix in P6: Negative float at baseline (before any progress) almost always indicates constraint abuse — specifically, "Finish No Later Than" or "Must Finish On" constraints applied to activities that physically cannot meet the constrained date given their predecessor logic. Remove the constraint, verify the logic, and add the constraint back only if contractually required.
Failure 4: Hard Constraint Overuse
What it is: Hard constraints — "Must Start On," "Must Finish On," "Start No Earlier Than," "Finish No Later Than" — override the CPM calculation. Excessive hard constraints suppress the schedule's ability to accurately show the impact of delays by preventing dates from shifting in response to predecessor slippage.
DCMA threshold: Hard-constrained activities should be less than 5% of total activities.
How to fix in P6: Run a filter for all activities with a Primary Constraint other than "As Late As Possible" or blank. For each constrained activity, evaluate whether the constraint is contractually required (a milestone date) or was applied for convenience (to lock a date that the logic would otherwise change). Remove the latter and establish proper logic relationships instead.
Failure 5: Relationship Lag Abuse
What it is: Lag on a Finish-to-Start relationship delays the start of a successor activity by a specified duration after its predecessor finishes. Reasonable lags — concrete cure time, submittal review periods — are appropriate. Excessive or arbitrary lags are often used to create buffer in the schedule without showing a legitimate activity.
DCMA threshold: Activities with lags should be less than 5% of total relationships.
How to fix in P6: Review all lags in the schedule using a relationship filter. Any lag greater than 5 workdays should have a documented physical justification (cure time, lead time, inspection period). Replace arbitrary lags with actual activities that represent the work or wait that the lag is standing in for.
Failure 6: Missed Activities Starting Before Data Date
What it is: Activities that should have started (based on their early start date) but have not been updated with actual start dates are "missed activities." A high count of missed activities indicates the schedule is not being updated against actual progress — it is being maintained as a planning document rather than a live control tool.
DCMA threshold: Missed activities should be less than 5% of total activities.
How to fix in P6: This is not a logic problem — it is a process problem. Every activity with an Early Start date before the data date should have either an Actual Start recorded or should be statused as "not started" with the Early Start updated to reflect current expectations. On monthly updates, running an unconstrained schedule with a properly set data date will surface these issues automatically.
CPM Pros runs DCMA assessments on every independent schedule review engagement. If your project's baseline has never been assessed against the 14-point criteria, contact us — we deliver a scored assessment with written findings in 3–5 business days.