Schedule logic check
Read a Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project export in your browser and see DCMA’s current schedule tests computed on it: open ends, lags, constraints, out-of-sequence progress, status-date faults and missing baselines, each with the activity IDs behind the number.
The seamThe contractor’s programme submitted for comment and the owner who has to decide whether its forecast can be relied on, with the network’s construction between them and nothing on the bar chart showing it.
The file is read in your browser and never leaves it. Nothing is uploaded, stored or sent anywhere; close the tab and it is gone. The print sheet shows the activity IDs the tests found, and nothing else from the file.
From P6: File, Export, Primavera PM (XER), the project only. From Microsoft Project: File, Save As, XML Format. A .mpp file is not readable here; save it as XML first.
Schedule logic check
2026-10-01. projects-advisors.com/tools/schedule-logic
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- Project
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- Activities and relationships
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DCMA EVMS Compliance Metrics v8.1, guideline 6
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Choose a Primavera XER or Microsoft Project XML export to see DCMA’s schedule tests computed on it.
What became of the 14-point assessment
The DCMA 14-point schedule assessment is the test most planners know. Its author no longer uses it: DCMA's compliance reviews analyse data against the latest approved version of the EVMS Compliance Metrics above (Business Practice 6), its surveillance covers guideline 6 with them (Business Practice 4), and the tracker's own archive records four of the 14 points deleted in 2019 with reasons. The figures those points asked for are still worth looking at, so this page computes them and shows them as data, without the thresholds their author withdrew.
| Retired test | Was | Deleted | DCMA's stated reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leads (negative lags) | At most 2% of relationships | July 2019 | DCMA’s archive says leads are part of the out-of-sequence test, 06A212a. |
| Start-to-finish relationships | None | July 2019 | Folded into the out-of-sequence test. |
| Start-to-start and finish-to-finish share | At most 15% of relationships | January 2019 | The archive says dangling logic, lags and leads are sufficient to identify the misuse. |
| Missing predecessors or successors | At most 10% of activities | January 2019 | Covered by dangling logic, 06A204b, at 0%. |
- High total float as a share of activities
- Only 06A211a remains: a manual, sampled judgement of whether the rationale for high float is acceptable, at 20%. There is no percentage-of-activities test. The float figures below are shown as data.
- High duration as a share of activities
- No equivalent in the current set. GAO’s best practice 4, establishing durations, is where the reason for looking still sits. The count below is shown as data.
- Critical path test and critical path length index
- 06A401a compares a critical path computed by the constraint method with the contractor’s, and needs the network re-run. Not computable from a file.
- Baseline execution index
- The current tests on baseline are 06A501a, baseline dates present, and 06A504a and b, actual dates changed after first reported. They need the baseline and a prior period.
A schedule that passes every test here can still be wrong: the tests check the network's construction and status, not whether the durations are achievable or the scope complete. GAO's guide puts those under its first and fourth practices, and the article on scheduled coverage argues the first. Progress reported against this schedule is read by the earned value calculator.
Computed from
- DCMA EVMS Compliance Metrics (DECM), metrics tracking and data artifact list v8.1 (v8.1, 11 February 2026; read 2026-09-05)https://www.dcma.mil/HQ/EVMS/
- DCMA EVMS Business Practice 4, EVMS Surveillance, revised 4 November 2025 (Revised 4 November 2025; read 2026-09-05)https://www.dcma.mil/Portals/31/Documents/EVMS/Business%20Practice%20Docs/Business%20Practice%204%20-%20EVMS%20Surveillance%20(REV%204NOV2025).pdf
- DCMA EVMS Business Practice 6, EVMS Compliance Review, revised 18 November 2025 (Revised 18 November 2025; read 2026-09-05)https://www.dcma.mil/Portals/31/Documents/EVMS/Business%20Practice%20Docs/Business%20Practice%206%20-%20EVMS%20Compliance%20Review%20(REV%2018NOV2025).pdf
- GAO Schedule Assessment Guide, GAO-16-89G, December 2015 (GAO-16-89G, December 2015; read 2026-09-01)https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-16-89g