Explanation of Acumen Fuse Project Scheduling Scoring Methods

1. UNDERSTANDING
ACUMEN FUSE
SCORE
Rufran C. Frago, P. Eng., PMP®, CCEC, PMI-RMP®
Revision 1: July 22, 2013

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3. The Project Controls Governance is looking to
finalize the Acumen Fuse score weightings and
calculation going forward.
The projects would like to fully understand how the
scores are to be calculated.
The manual metric calculation uses a simple
calculation of 1-point per metric on a standard
metric set consisting of 21 metrics. See Figure 1
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Given Situation
Figure 1

4. We were expecting a straight forward calculation
that if we have 15 greens out of 21, we'll have a
result of (15/21)*100% or 71%. Green means pass,
Red means fail. Nothing in between.
Our passing score is set to 70% and up. We cannot
set this same weighting in Acumen Fuse.
This manual setting is not possible in Acumen Fuse.
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Given Situation

5. During the last Gate Review, we found another thing
that caught our attention. We found that regardless
of how much improvement was done to improve the
quality of the schedule; the score did not change
much.
Let say we improved the number of green metric
from 15 to 19. The score remained below 70%, say
66% or 63%.
When certain metrics were removed from the 21 and
make the whole set consist of only 15, the score
more or less remained the same.
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Given Situation … (continuation)

6. 1) Activity-Based scoring requires that a task passes
all metrics in order to receive credit in the score.
The scoring method counts the number of tasks
that pass all metrics, divided by the number of total
tasks, times one-hundred percent.
2) By using Metric-Based scoring, an activity can
receive “partial credit.”
These are the only two type of scoring options
available in Acumen Fuse. Selecting either activity
based or metric based scoring has a critical influence
on the scoring outcome.
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Metric-Based Score or Activity-Based
Score? Which one is better? 1)

7. By default in Acumen Fuse, activity-based scoring is
used.
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Activity-Based Scoring

8. Activity-based scoring computes the final score by
requiring an activity to pass all metrics visible in the
ribbon view in order to count positively toward the
overall score.
In other words, activity-based scoring uses a pass/fail
method which calculates the number of activities
passing each metric and the number of activities failing
each metric to determine the overall score.
Only those tasks that pass all criteria will have a
positive influence on the overall score when activity
based scoring is used. By correcting the issues
associated with the activity, the individual activity
score is improved as well as the overall project score.
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Activity-Based Scoring 3)

9. A task must be improved in all red areas and score
should be 100% in order to influence the overall score
positively. See Figure-2
In activity-based scoring, any degree of ‘Bad’ will
prevent the activity from having a positive impact on
the overall score.
Conversely, when a metric is rated as ‘Good’ and a
certain task fails to meet the criteria for the metric, it
will not count toward the score.
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Activity-Based Scoring 3) … (continuation)

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Activity-Based Scoring… (continuation)
Figure 2

11. Metric-based scoring allows tasks to receive ‘partial
credit’ toward the overall score. 3)
 Score is a lot higher than Activity-Based scoring. 3)
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Metric-Based Scoring… (continuation)
Figure 3

12. Tasks receive credit based on how many of the
metrics they have passed and the weighting values
assigned to each of those metrics.
Figure 3 shows an example using metric-based scoring
rather than activity based.
Under the metric-based scoring system the project
receives a score of 94%, significantly higher than the
55% score the project received using activity based
scoring.
This higher score is because in metric-based scoring,
each task’s individual score counts toward the total.
The score values from individual tasks are averaged to
create the overall score rather than just the pass/fail
status of each activity. Effectively, each task now
receives partial credit toward the goal of 100%.
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Metric-Based Scoring 3) … (continuation)

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PROPOSED WEIGHTINGS

14. Tom Polen of Acumen Fuse has created a video and
written a guide that reviews the scoring process in
more detail.
Watch the video (follow hyperlink below):
Guide to Acumen Fuse Scoring Video
Read the written guide (follow hyperlink below):
Written Guide on Scores - Download
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Video Guide-Acumen Fuse Scores 1)

15. 1. If for example, there are two metrics out of the 21
metrics identified are still unavailable and I de-
activate the two metrics from the S2//Diagnostic
Window, will they still be counted to contribute to the
Overall score?
2. If so, what should I do to remove their contribution to
the score without removing them from the set of
metrics altogether?
Answer to Question 1 and 2.
If the metrics are de-activated from the Ribbon View in
the S2//Diagnostics window, they will not contribute to
the score. We can leave them in the metrics folder in the
Metrics tab without adjusting their weighting pointer.
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Questions

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1) 2013, Guide to Acumen Fuse Scores by Tom Polen of Acumen Fuse.
2) 2013, Written Guide on Scores - Download , Acumen Fuse Web Site
3) October 2012, Project Scoring in Acumen Fuse by Acumen
References & Additional Materials

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