Schedule Health Score Reference

Open Ends

0%

An activity without a predecessor or successor relationship may negatively affect the quality of your schedule and should be avoided.

No Predecessors

0%

An activity with no predecessors could be scheduled to start immediately. This can negatively impact your project schedule and should be avoided.

No Successors

0%

An activity with no successor relationships could be delayed indefinitely without affecting project completion. Ensure all activities have at least one successor.

Dangling Start

0%

An activity with a dangling start has only SF or FF predecessors and therefore could have an unrealistic start date. To avoid dangling starts, ensure each activity has at least one FS or SS relationship as its predecessor.

Dangling Finish

0%

An activity with a dangling finish has only SF or SS successors and therefore could have an unrealistic finish date. To avoid dangling finishes, ensure each activity has at least one FS or SS relationship as its successor.

Predecessor Negative Lag

0%

The use of negative lags to overlap activities or adjust successor dates can affect the critical path and distort total float. It can also cause a successor to start before a predecessor. Negative lags can cause activities to be scheduled in unrealistic ways and generally should not be used.

If an event in the predecessor activity is the "trigger" to begin the successor activity, consider breaking the predecessor into two activities. For example, two activities "Design" and "Build" would become "Draft Design", "Finalize Design", and "Build". "Draft Design" would then precede both other activities.

Predecessor Lag

5% or less

Lag time between activities should not be used to control float or constrain dates. Consider representing the delay between two activities by adding another activity.

If a lag represents some effort or activity, consider replacing it with an activity. For example, two activities "Pour Concrete" and "Build Wall" could have a lag replaced with an activity "Concrete Set".

FS Predecessor

90% or greater

Finish-to-Start (FS) relationships are the easiest to trace and understand. The majority of your relationships should be FS.

Note: The FS Predecessor check is unique in that its objective is to maximize the number of activities that meet its criteria. The objective of all other checks is to minimize the number of activities that meet the check's criteria. When the FS Predecessor score exceeds its Target value, the check is marked green. The FS Predecessor check uses a different formula when calculating the overall Schedule Health Score.

SS Predecessor

10% or less

Start-to-Start (SS) relationships are acceptable to use in moderation.

FF Predecessor

10% or less

Finish-to-Finish (FF) relationships are acceptable to use in moderation.

SF Predecessor

0%

Start-to-Finish (SF) relationship logic says the successor occurs before the predecessor. SF relationships are a poor practice and generally should not be used.

Hard Constraint

0%

Mandatory Start and Mandatory Finish are hard constraints that prevent activities from being scheduled according to logic and prevent delays from impacting succeeding activities. The effects of hard constraints become more noticeable as the schedule is progressed, and they generally should not be used.

Soft Constraint

5% or less

Soft constraints allow the schedule to be logic driven but can distort float and create negative float.

The following constraints are considered soft constraints:

• As Late As Possible
• Start On
• Start On Or Before
• Start On Or After
• Finish On
• Finish On Or Before
• Finish On Or After

Invalid Progress Date

0%

Progress should be recorded before the Data Date, and planned work should be recorded after. Activities with invalid dates can affect the accuracy of the project schedule.

This check score is calculated after scheduling your project.

Late Activity

5% or less

Late activities indicate how well the project is performing against the original baseline.

Large Float

0%

Large float values may indicate missing activity relationships. Provide activities with reasonable logic to ensure a more stable project plan.

Negative Float

0%

Negative float usually indicates an activity constraint that cannot be met with the current schedule or progress has been made out of sequence. Corrective action should be taken to ensure activity dates are accurate and achievable.

Large Duration

5% or less

Large duration activities are harder to manage and may lack sufficient detail. Consider dividing these activities into shorter, more discrete activities, which provide better insight into cost and schedule.

No Role or Resource

0%

Roles and resources detail the cost and labor of the work to be performed. An activity without roles or resources may be insufficiently planned.