Missed Tasks

What it is

The Missed Tasks metric identifies activities that the baseline planned to finish by the
status date but that did not finish on time. It is check #11 of the DCMA 14-Point
Assessment.

The check is measured against the baseline, not the previous update. It looks at every
activity whose baseline finish falls on or before the current status date and counts how
many either finished late or haven't finished at all.

How it's calculated

\text{Missed Tasks \%} = \frac{\text{Activities that finished after their
baseline finish, or are still incomplete}}{\text{Activities with a Baseline
Finish on or before the Status Date}} \times 100

For example, if the baseline planned 200 activities to finish by the current data date and
14 of them either finished late or are still open, Missed Tasks = 14 ÷ 200 = 7%.

Because the comparison is always to the baseline, missed activities accumulate. An
activity that missed its baseline finish three updates ago still counts as missed today,
even if it has performed well since.

Why it matters

Missed Tasks shows whether the project team is consistently meeting the commitments
in the approved plan. A rising percentage indicates that planned work is regularly slipping,
which typically leads to a growing backlog, compressed downstream work, and pressure
on the completion date. It complements BEI: BEI measures how much planned work has
been completed, while Missed Tasks measures how often planned finishes were not met.

DCMA acceptance criteria: Missed Tasks should be 5% or less.

Things to keep in mind

A period-over-period view, comparing the current update to the previous one, is useful for
seeing what slipped in a given update cycle. It isn't the DCMA measure, though, and
shouldn't be compared against the 5% threshold.

Re-baselining effectively resets Missed Tasks, since activities are measured against the
new baseline dates. A sudden improvement in the metric is worth checking against
whether the baseline changed.

Related SmartPM Metrics

SmartPM already flags activities that are experiencing delays or changes in expected
progress. Missed Tasks differs because it compares the current update against the
baseline to determine whether activities planned to finish by the status date actually did.