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The 14-Point Playbook: A Practitioner's Guide to the DCMA 14-Point Schedule Assessment
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Aug 27 2026
Pages: 38
Weight: 0.14
Height: 0.08 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Nine of fourteen points, failed before lunch.
That's how most schedulers meet the DCMA 14-Point Assessment - not through training, but through a rejected submission and a program manager standing over their shoulder asking why the Baseline Execution Index just turned red.
This book closes that gap. It walks all fourteen points - Logic, Leads, Lags, Relationship Types, Hard Constraints, High Float, Negative Float, High Duration, Invalid Dates, Resources, Missed Tasks, Critical Path Test, CPLI, and BEI - against one fully worked, $42M Integrated Master Schedule: the Meridian Defence Systems AN/SQR-19 Radar Upgrade Program, a composite case study built from patterns common across real government contract scheduling. Every point is diagnosed, explained, and then fixed - remediation included, not left as an exercise for the reader.
You'll see exactly how:
- Each of the fourteen points quietly corrupts EVM metrics like CPLI and BEI when left unresolved, and why DCMA sequenced the checks the way it did
- A schedule that opens at 7.8% open logic, eleven negative lags, and an 18-activity negative float problem gets remediated point by point, with documented before/after results
- To build P6 global filters for all fourteen checks and run a pre-submission pass before DCMA runs it for you
Part One explains what the Assessment actually is and why it matters beyond compliance. Part Two works through all fourteen points across four chapters. Part Three covers remediation end to end. Part Four is a compact toolkit - filter logic and a checklist you can use on your next program starting this week.
This is not an introduction to Primavera P6 or critical path method - you should already know both. What it will do is take you from I know the 14-Point Assessment exists to I can run it, interpret it, and fix a failing schedule before the government does it for me.
Written for planning engineers, schedulers, and project controls professionals on government, defense, aerospace, or federally-funded capital programs - anywhere DCMA-style schedule health checks show up, whether or not the contract cites DCMA by name.
About the Author
Mohammed Abrar Ahmed, PMP(R), is a planning engineer with six-plus years of EPC/EPCIC project controls experience across GCC-region capital programs, specializing in Primavera P6 scheduling, delay analysis, and earned value management
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