The DCMA 14-point assessment is a set of fourteen schedule-quality metrics, first published by the US Defense Contract Management Agency, that has become a common way to sanity-check a Primavera P6 (or Microsoft Project) programme before anyone relies on it for reporting. It does not judge whether the plan is right, only whether it is built soundly, so the dates it produces can be trusted.
Each check is scored red, amber or green against a tolerance, most commonly a 5% threshold (0% for negative float). Green does not prove the plan is achievable; it means the schedule is mechanically well-formed. Amber and red show where logic, constraints or float need attention before the programme is reported. This tool lets you adjust every threshold, so you can match a client’s or framework’s agreed profile rather than the generic defaults.
No. The assessment measures how the schedule is constructed, not whether the durations, sequence and assumptions reflect reality. A schedule can pass all fourteen checks and still be wrong. Treat it as a structural MOT, not a verdict on the plan.
The 5% and 0.95 figures are the widely used DCMA defaults, but they are conventions, not law. Frameworks and clients often agree their own tolerances. Every threshold here is adjustable, and you can save a profile to reuse across a programme.