What is Acumen Fuse?
Acumen Fuse is a metric analysis and visualization tool that assesses quality of schedules, accuracy of cost forecasts, realism of risk models, earned value and project performance.
More than just a schedule analyzer, Fuse uses libraries of metrics to provide a unique insight into how to improve project plans and execution strategies.
What has typically taken schedulers and project managers days to achieve is now easily and repeatedly done in minutes. Quickly pinpoint problematic areas and activities within a project and let Fuse provide solutions for resolution.
Schedule Review and Critique
Eliminate costly scheduling errors and shortcomings and improve the maturity of your schedule, ensuring a more accurate and realistic basis on which to plan and execute your project.
Schedule Acceleration
Quickly identify areas of concern within a project before issues and schedule delays occur. Use an Acumen Fuse Path Analysis to determine which paths to accelerate and which activities to focus on giving the biggest benefit for acceleration.
Cost Reduction
Determine where project cost overruns are happening and more importantly, why. Use the project scorecard for insight into how poor scheduling and risk contribute to cost overruns.
Risk Mitigation
Reduce risk exposure by pinpointing specific periods of time, activities, and disciplines that cause unacceptably high risk exposure. Reduce both cost and schedule risk.
Performance Tracking
Visualize project performance from planning to execution to project closeout. Compare current project snapshots to past and future plans.
Forensic Analysis
Quickly identify changes and updates to multiple versions or snapshots of a project with the Acumen Fuse Forensic Analyzer.
Portfolio Assessment
Analyze and compare multiple projects and programs within a portfolio. Running an Acumen Fuse portfolio assessment provides great insight into the cumulative effect and impact of a single project on an entire portfolio.
Solutions:
Improved Scheduling and Resolved Schedule Issues
Through metric libraries such as the 14 Point Assessment and Acumen Fuse's advanced schedule checks, the Acumen Fuse user is able to pinpoint and resolve scheduling flaws, ensuring a more realistic and achievable plan. Pinpoint hidden schedule issues by location, discipline, time and any other desired perspective.
One-Stop-Shop for Total Project Analysis
Acumen Fuse is a one-stop-shop for analysis of schedule data, cost information, risk models, earned value and project performance. Open a single Fuse workbook to analyze each discipline in one or several projects, regardless of the data source.
More Realistic Forecasting
Eliminate overly optimistic estimating and forecasting generating more achievable targets.
Sound Risk Assessments
Run Acumen Fuse's risk check metrics to validate your cost and schedule risk models and ensure sound risk plans. These checks ensure you avoid the common pitfalls commonly seen in risk models of 'garbage in/garbage out'.
Risk Exposure Determination
Reduce risk exposure by pinpointing specific periods of time, activities and disciplines that cause unacceptably high risk exposure. Understand exactly what the results from your Monte Carlo risk analysis or Primavera Risk Analysis truly mean to your project, and reduce both cost and schedule risk.
Schedule Delay Avoidance
Use the Fuse path analysis to determine which paths to accelerate and which activities to focus on giving the biggest benefit for acceleration.
Cost Overrun Reduction
Acumen Fuse helps to determine where project cost overruns are happening, and more importantly, why. The project scorecard helps to resolve these by revealing how poor scheduling and risk contribute to cost overruns.
True Project Insight
Acumen Fuse ribbons provide a quick and easy means of visualizing what matters in your project. Analyze by ribbons of your choice making reporting flexible and straightforward. Compare an unlimited number of project snapshots over time to gain a unique insight into performance trending. Quickly determine changes in risk exposure, execution performance, cost overruns and earned value.
Overcome Disparate and Incompatible Formats of Data
Analyze project management data irrespective of the base project management tool or platform.
Prompt Reporting
With just the click of a button, Acumen Fuse easily publishes reports to Microsoft® Word, Excel, or prints to PDF.
Technical information:
Integrated Platforms
Acumen Fuse® offers one of the most comprehensive ranges of platform support. Multiple types of project management data can be seamlessly imported for immediate analysis:
Acumen Fuse does not compete with or replace the need for any of the above listed tools. In fact, it is quite the opposite; Acumen Fuse adds to these platforms by providing additional insight through metric analysis.
Mix and Match Project Data
A single Acumen Fuse workbook can contain one or more projects from any of the supported platforms. Analyze any combination of Microsoft® Project, Primavera®, Deltek® and Microsoft® Excel data.
Field Mapping
User defined and code fields are automatically mapped during importation of the data. Fields can manually be mapped for customization as well.
Merging of Data
Cost, schedule, risk, and earned value data can easily be merged to a single dataset for integrated analysis. For example, combine Microsoft® Project schedule data with earned value data from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and risk data from Primavera Risk Analysis.
Acumen Fuse Minimum System Requirements
Fuse API & Custom Reporting
What is the Fuse API?
The Fuse API (Application Programming Interface) is a flexible means of extracting the results from a Fuse analysis directly into 3rd party custom reports and external applications. All of the standard Fuse analyses (Metric, logic, and forensics) can all be remotely driven through the API. In short: the Fuse API provides you the flexibility of extending the standard analytics and reporting capabilities built into Fuse to satisfy specific custom needs.
Examples
Custom Fuse reports can be embedded within any of the main Fuse analysis views.
How Do I Start Developing Custom Reports?
The Fuse API is language independent. Custom reports can be written in any language/application that accepts XML data. This includes but is not limited to:
Who Can Help Me Develop API Reports and Utilities?
The Fuse API is an open architecture. API reports and custom utilities can be developed by anyone with reporting/XML understanding. Acumen also offers assistance with custom report development.
Industry Applications
The project simplification and optimization results of an Acumen Fuse analysis benefit a wide range of industries and users.
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Oil and Gas For CAPEX owner and contractor project management |
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Government
Schedule and EVMS compliance |
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Construction Multi-contractor management |
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Aerospace & Defense Large project planning and cost control |
Industry Standards
Acumen Fuse offers native analytical support for both the DCMA 14 Point Assessment as well as the GAO 9 Scheduling Best Practices. Included with each Acumen Fuse license is the DCMA 14 Point Assessment metric library, useful for critiquing project schedules before being audited by the DCMA or to ensure overall schedule quality. The GAO 9 Scheduling Best Practices can also be checked using Acumen Fuse.
Learn more about the DCMA 14 Point Assessment
Learn more about the GAO 9 Scheduling Best Practices
Learn more about the NDIA GASP criteria
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