Schedule Practice Metrics

The main objective of the Scheduling Practice metrics is to provide owner project control personnel with detailed diagnostic data on scheduling development practices used by Industry. The metrics themselves are based on live schedules submitted by project teams as part of IPA’s regular project evaluations. The metrics are commonly used for guiding internal schedule development, benchmarking scheduling practices, and validating and reviewing contractor-developed schedules. The metrics are sub-divided into two major groups by project phase (e.g., Schedule Practice Metrics for End of FEL 2 and End of FEL 3). Each metric set is grouped into cost size categories ranging from $1 million to $1 billion. In total, there are 15 difference metrics that are briefly described below:

• Total number of activities in the schedule: Simple sum of the number of individual activities in the project schedule. This total includes summary bars and/or hammock activities. Useful for high-level screening of schedule detail.
• Number of activities per million dollars: Total number of activities in the schedule divided by the estimated cost in millions of U.S. dollars. Also used to screen level of detail in the schedule.
• Average activity duration in days: Average of the planned durations of all activities in the schedule based on units of days. The average excludes summary activities or hammock activities. Also useful in assessing the level of detail in the schedule. A short activity duration suggests a finer level of detail within the schedule.
• Average total float duration in days: Average of the reported total float duration of all activities in the schedule based on units of days.
• Number of resource categories loaded: Total number of categories of resources that were loaded into the project schedule. Resource categories are resource types, such as welders, process designers, mechanical engineers, cranes, etc.
• Percent of activities that are resource loaded: This metric is calculated by taking the total number of activities that have any resource loading and divide them by the total number of activities in the schedule. Resource loading is identified as an industry Best Practice for Authorization/Budget schedules. This metric identifies the approximate level or resource loading necessary for a Best-in-Class schedule.
• Percent of activities that are summary activities: This metric is calculated by taking the total number of activities that are summary bars or hammock activities and dividing them by the total number of activities in the schedule. This metric is key in understanding the level of detail in the activities—more summary activities, less definition.
• Percent of activities that are milestone activities: This metric is calculated by taking the total number of activities that are zero duration activities. Like summary activities, this metric assesses the level of detail within a schedule. Schedules with large percentages of milestone activities are often missing Best-in-Class levels of detail.
• Percent of activities that are FEL activities: Based on the information in the schedule, the total number of activities that are associated with FEL were determined. This metric is useful in understanding the level of detail required for the FEL phase.
• Percent of activities that are engineering activities: Based on the information in the schedule, the total number of activities that are associated with engineering were determined. This metric is useful in understanding the level of detail required for the detailed engineering phase.
• Percent of activities that are procurement activities: Based on the information in the schedule, the total number of activities that are associated with procurement were determined. This metric is useful in understanding the level of detail required for the procurement phase.
• Percent of activities that are construction activities: Based on the information in the schedule, the total number of activities that are associated with construction were determined. This metric is useful in understanding the level of detail required for the construction phase.
• Percent of activities with no successor activities: This metric is calculated by taking the total number of activities that have no successor tie (excluding summary activities or hammock activities) and dividing them by the total number of activities in the schedule. Useful for assessing the network within the schedule. More activities without successors suggests potential networking gaps.
• Percent of activities on the critical path: This metric is calculated by taking the number of activities that are on the critical path (excluding summary activities and hammock activities) and dividing them by the total number of activities. It assesses the maturity of the schedule’s critical path. Too few activities may represent a gap in the schedule’s true critical path.
• Percent of activities with activity constraints: Activity constraints are hard limits put onto an activity that override the normal schedule calculation algorithm.