The Deltek Acumen SmartGantt feature displays enhanced Gantt chart coloring to better represent the schedule situation.
The Gantt chart is the heart and soul of scheduling software. The more you can display on the Gantt chart the more insight you gain. Deltek Acumen’s SmartGantt feature has Gantt chart coloring capabilities that can provide greater clarity into the true schedule situation. Using color coding Acumen overlays results from an Acumen Fuse metric analysis, duration uncertainty settings, cost uncertainty settings, and activity criticality analysis.
This article explores the utility of the Deltek Acumen SmartGantt feature for displaying results on the Gantt chart.
Acumen Fuse – Schedule Quality Metric Results
Let take a look at viewing metric results on the Gantt chart. In Figure 1, we have a Microsoft Project schedule.
Figure 1
This project is for construction of an Electrical Substation. Figure 2 is our project imported and displayed in Acumen S1 // Projects.
Figure 2
We perform a Schedule Quality Fuse diagnostic analysis, which is the default, on the schedule and display the ribbon metric results, shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3
This schedule has several issues, including missing logic, insufficient detail, lags, leads, and a merge hotspot. These results are how the schedule performed for each metric over the life of entire project. If we want to view the activities captured for each metric during the schedule, we left click on the color-coded box below the metric header label, Figure 4.
Figure 4
This provides a list of all activities captured by the respective metric. We can also view how the schedule performed for each metric and time interval including months, weeks, and days. These are the phase analyzer results and are displayed for monthly time intervals below in Figure 5.
Figure 5
The phase analyzer results provide insight into schedule quality through each interval or phase of the schedule. Now we want to view the schedule quality metric performance directly on the Gantt chart, and for that we turn to the SmartGantt feature in Deltek Acumen. To display the SmartGantt configuration window, In S1 // Projects we select the lower right-hand corner of the Activities ribbon group, Figure 6.
Figure 6
Figure 7 displays the SmartGantt configuration window.
Figure 7
Currently the top Gantt chart bar color (or top bar color) is set the display critical/non-critical activities. We toggle to display the default Schedule Quality metric group, Figure 8.
Figure 8
The SmartGantt feature than color codes the Gantt chart according to how each individual activity scores, according to the Schedule Quality analysis metric group, Figure 9.
Figure 9
This color-coded Gantt chart displays a perspective on activity metric performance that only the Gantt chart can provide. We find our two activities flagged for missing logic (Notice to Proceed and Project Complete) are the first and last activities in the schedule and are acceptable. This example shows how the SmartGantt view of the Gantt chart in tandem with the ribbon analyzer combine to provide more insight into the real quality situation of the schedule.
Continuing, we can see how the duration of activities flagged for insufficient detail match up against other activities on the Gantt chart. We observe that Project Management spans the entire duration of the project, which should be investigated. We can also spot Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) elements or deliverables that have color-coding indicating that associated underneath activities need review.
The Construction deliverable is color-coded yellow and associated activities may require further inspection. The SmartGantt Gantt chart view does not replace the ribbon and phase analyzers, but it does spotlight deficient activities and may provide some indication on the issue at hand.
So, the SmartGantt Schedule Quality color-coded Gantt chart complements the S2 // Diagnostics ribbon and phase analyzers to gain more perspective on schedule quality. It is also helpful to inspect the Gantt chart in the schedule’s respective scheduling software, e.g. Microsoft Project or Primavera P6, to gain further insight into activities and their corresponding relationships.
Risk – Duration Uncertainty
Second, we want to view duration uncertainty on the Gantt chart. In Figure 10, we have a Primavera P6 schedule.
Figure 10
This project is for an Underground Pipe Branch Addition. In Figure 11 our Pipe Branch project is imported and displayed in Acumen S1 // Projects.
Figure 11
We then set the duration uncertainty of each activity in S3 // Risk, Figure 12.
Figure 12
Again, to display the SmartGantt configuration window, In S1 // Projects we select the lower right-hand corner of the Activities ribbon group, Figure 13.
Figure 13
In the SmartGantt Configuration dialog we toggle the mode to Risk Duration Uncertainty, Figure 14.
Figure 14
Acumen then color codes the Gantt chart in S1 // Projects according to the risk duration uncertainty setting for each activity in the schedule, Figure 15.
Figure 15
And when you hoover the mouse over an activity on the Gantt chart, such as Backhoe Excavation, it displays a text field of the respective task’s duration uncertainty setting, again, Figure 15. The SmartGantt duration uncertainty color-coding provides perspective on the duration uncertainty assignments. You want to note, in particular, the duration uncertainty of the longer duration activities.
Risk – Cost Uncertainty
We can do the same color-coding of the Gantt chart for cost uncertainty. In Figure 16 we set the cost uncertainty of each task.
Figure 16
As previously, to display the SmartGantt configuration window, In S1 // Projects we select the lower right-hand corner of the Activities ribbon group. Then, in the SmarttGantt Configuration dialog, we toggle cost uncertainty, Figure 17.
Figure 17
Acumen then color codes the Gantt chart in S1 // Projects according to the risk cost uncertainty setting for each activity in the schedule, Figure 18.
Figure 18
Note the cost uncertainty setting for ‘Install Tee Fitting’, Figure 18. The SmartGantt cost uncertainty color-coding also provides some context on the cost uncertainty assignments. Here the duration of the activity is not quite as important as the total cost of the activity and its associated cost uncertainty setting.
Still, it may be good to review the shorter duration activities that have high cost and aggressive cost uncertainty. Further inspection may reveal the reason for the expense, perhaps, an expensive material assignment or numerous resource assignments. So, in this way the scheduler leverages the Gantt chart, and gains perspective on cost uncertainty.
Risk – Criticality
Now let us look at criticality, which considers the number of times the activity fell on the critical path during the risk analysis. Green activities have lower criticality, yellow or orange activities fall in the middle range, and red activities have a higher criticality. We again, use the Underground Pipe Branch Addition project as our demonstration schedule.
We first reset the duration uncertainty of all activities to very conservative, Figure 19.
Figure 19
Then we run a risk analysis for the uncertainty and risk events (no mitigation) scenario. The results display, again, in Figure 19. We then choose Right Panel | Critical Schedule Drivers to plot the how often each critical path appeared in the simulation, Figure 20.
Figure 20
Acumen then displays a Critical Schedule Drivers Tornado plot, Figure 21.
Figure 21
Our schedule has two paths that are critical depending on the simulation iteration of the Monte Carlo analysis. In the SmartGantt Configuration dialog, Figure 22, we toggle the Risk Criticality setting.
Figure 22
Acumen then color codes the Gantt chart in S1 // Projects according to the criticality of the activity in the schedule, Figure 23.
Figure 23
Again, criticality specifies how many times the respective activity in Monte Carlo simulations fell on the critical path. By the color of each activity we get an idea of how often an activity was critical.
If we hoover the mouse over an activity Acumen displays a percentage of how often that activity was on the critical path during risk analysis. We observe in Figure 23 that the ‘Delivery Piping & Valve & Tee Fitting’ task became critical in 15% of the iterations. ‘Backhoe Excavation’ activity was critical for 85% of the iterations. ‘Install Valve & Piping’ and ‘Install Pipe Insulation’ activities were critical 100% of the time or for all paths in the simulations.
The criticality feature in the SmartGantt Configuration dialog complements the Critical Schedule Drivers tornado plot in S3 // Risk, which indicates how often a path was critical during the risk analysis.
Summary
The Deltek Acumen SmartGantt feature provides Gantt chart color coding to complement respective fuse/risk analyses. The scheduler can overlay coloring on the Gantt chart according to the Acumen default Schedule Quality Metric group or from a list of individual metrics.
The Deltek Acumen SmartGantt is also helpful for overlaying either duration or cost uncertainty on the Gantt chart.
Finally, the scheduler may overlay the results of their criticality analysis on the Gantt chart. Overlaying color coding on the Gantt chart in this way provides more insight into the respective analysis.