According to Acumen’s CEO and President, Dr. Dan Patterson, the integrity of the critical path (CPM)—a key factor in the reliability of subsequent resource allocation, cost engineering, risk modeling, and overall project execution—is the key to ensuring the project’s success. He also believes that completing the project with precision, using a realistic, risk-adjusted schedule, is far more valuable than a deterministic schedule. We sat down with Patterson to discuss how Acumen’s core concepts, its methodology, and its “hand-in-hand” work products can consistently create reliable schedules that are on time and within budget for projects—and ultimately, successful project managers.
What is the Acumen Fuse Schedule Index?
Recognizing the need for a standard benchmark for schedule quality, Acumen created the award-winning Fuse Schedule Index™. The Fuse Schedule Index consists of nine different quality checks and their proven effectiveness thresholds. Each of these indicators is calculated individually and weighted before being compiled into the Index. Standard thresholds have been established to help determine whether your project makes the cut or not. Since its inception, the Index has been built into the Acumen software platform, used as the basis for cloud-based benchmarking, and offered as part of a free web utility that all planners can access.
What impact does the Fuse Schedule Index™ have on project management?
With the adoption of the Fuse Schedule Index™ by both contracting and subcontracting organizations, expectations and communication between the parties have been aligned, and the practice of planning sound and reliable schedules has been elevated. This increased demand from both owners—those who invest capital to keep projects moving forward—and contractors—those who invest their expertise to get the project done—only demonstrates that standardization is both necessary and successful. It is now generally accepted that the higher the quality of a project schedule, the greater the chance that the project will be executed smoothly and meet expectations.