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P6 Schedule Analytics

DCMA 14-point assessment

4. Relationship types

The share of relationships that are finish-to-start.

Default threshold
At least 90% finish-to-start
On the demo programme
Pass94.2% FS (601 of 638)

Definition

Finish-to-start should dominate a programme's logic. Start-to-start and finish-to-finish have their place for overlapping work; start-to-finish almost never does.

How the app counts it

  • Measured on relationships into incomplete work, as DCMA does.
  • The check lists how many relationships of each type there are.

Thresholds, the counting basis and whether the check counts towards the score can all be changed. See settings.

Why it matters

Heavy use of SS and FF makes the network hard to trace and often masks the true driver of a date. It also makes dangling logic more likely.

How to fix it in P6

  1. Where work genuinely overlaps, pair each SS with an FF from the same predecessor, so the successor can't finish before the work it follows.
  2. Where a chain of SS links stands in for sequential work, break the work into activities linked finish-to-start.
  3. Remove start-to-finish links unless you can explain each one.

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