'Link activity finishes' quality metric
Use this metric to check the proportion of tasks that have at least one outgoing link that starts at the end of the task. A high proportion of poorly-linked tasks can indicate that a schedule's link logic is faulty.
If a bar contains more than one task, a task is considered to be linked to its immediate successor tasks on the bar by an "implied link", even if no actual link exists between the tasks, unless the bar is configured to allow tasks to overlap. This metric treats implied links in the same way as normal links.
The finish task of a project will have no successor tasks. You can choose to exclude the finish task in a project from this quality metric. If the scope of a quality check is the entire project - from start to finish - it makes sense to do this, as if you include the finish task in this quality metric, it will fail the metric even though it is correctly linked. Select the Allow finish activity check box to exclude the finish task from this quality metric. If you select this check box, if there is a single task in the scope of the quality check that has no outgoing links that start at the end of the task, this task will be assumed to be the finish task and will pass the metric. If you select this check box and there are multiple tasks with no outgoing links that start at the end of the task, all such tasks will fail the metric, just as they will fail if you clear the check box.
Examples of tasks with no outgoing links that start at the end of the task
In the following illustration, Task 1 and Task 5 have no outgoing links at all; Task 2 has one outgoing link, but it does not start at the end of the task. All three tasks would fail this metric. Although the first task on the Task 4 bar has no outgoing links, there is an "implied link" between it and the second task on the bar, which means that it would not fail the metric:
If the Allow finish activity check box was selected, as there are multiple tasks with no outgoing links that start at the end of the task, Task 1, Task 2 and Task 5 would still fail this metric.
In the following illustration, Task 5 is the only task with no outgoing links (as in the illustration above, the first task on the Task 4 bar has an "implied link" between it and the second task on the bar):
If the Allow finish activity check box was selected, as there is only one task with no outgoing links that start at the end of the task, Task 5 - the finish task - would be excluded from this metric; if the check box was cleared, Task 5 would be included and would fail this metric.
You can change the impact that this metric has on the weighted total result of a quality check by entering a factor by which the quality metric should be multiplied in the Weighting field. For the weighting to have any effect, a quality check must have more than one quality metric.
Pass and fail criteria
| Pass or fail? | Criteria |
|---|---|
| Pass |
A project passes this metric if the percentage of tasks with at least one outgoing link that starts at the end of the task is greater than or equal to the pass boundary percentage.
For example, if the pass boundary was set to 90.00%, a project would pass this metric if 90.00% or more of tasks had at least one outgoing link that starts at the end of the task. |
| Fail |
A project fails this metric if the percentage of tasks with at least one outgoing link that starts at the end of the task is less than the fail boundary percentage.
For example, if the fail boundary was set to 90.00%, a project would fail this metric if less than 90.00% of tasks had at least one outgoing link that starts at the end of the task. |
| Neither pass nor fail | If the percentage of tasks with at least one outgoing link that starts at the end of the task falls between the pass and fail boundary percentages, the result is neither a pass nor a fail, but somewhere in between. |
Default suggested settings
- Allow finish activity: selected if the scope is the entire project; cleared if the scope is part of the project.
- Pass boundary: 90.00%. A project will pass this metric if 90.00% or more of tasks have at least one outgoing link that starts at the end of the task.
- Fail boundary: 90.00%. A project will fail this metric if less than 90.00% of tasks have at least one outgoing link that starts at the end of the task.
The following table shows whether some example projects would pass or fail this metric using these settings:
| Percentage of tasks with at least one outgoing link that starts at the end of the task | Pass or fail? |
|---|---|
| 0.00% | Fail |
| 50.00% | Fail |
| 89.99% | Fail |
| 90.00% | Pass |
| 95.00% | Pass |
| 100.00% | Pass |
Does the metric force a project to be rescheduled?
No
Suggested actions if a project fails this metric
If a project fails this metric, select the metric in the Quality Check Results dialog and click Show Failing Tasks to view the tasks that have failed the metric.
Ensure that any failing tasks are linked correctly to their successors.
Introduction to schedule quality checking