September 2019 – The Official Site for Zümmer – CPM Schedule Analysis & Comparison

Streamlining the Printing Process with Adobe Acrobat

Since Zümmer is a “report intensive application”, printing using Adobe Acrobat is an excellent way to process all Zümmer reports. However, the default Printing Preferences may slow down the process especially when printing multiple reports.

Changing the settings as noted below will vastly improve your experience when using Zümmer.

The instructions below work for Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard Version and Microsoft Windows 10. The procedure may vary with other Versions.

1) Create a New Folder on your desktop named Adobe PDF Output. (Fig. 1)

2) Click on the Windows Start button and select Devices and Printers.

3) Right-Click on the Printer Icon used for Adobe Acrobat. (Fig. 2)

a. Set as the Default Printer. A green check-mark appears on the bottom-left corner of the Icon.

4) Right-Click again and select Printing Preferences: (Fig. 3)

a. Uncheck View Adobe PDF results.

b. Click on the “Browse…” button to change the Adobe PDF Output Folder setting.

c. Select Adobe PDF Output the click OK. Then click OK in the Adobe Acrobat PDF Printing Preferences window. (Fig. 4)

In Zümmer, when the Print command button is clicked, all the selected reports will then be immediately routed to the folder “Adobe PDF Output”. Later, you can view all the PDF files when the print job is complete. A typical Zümmer output run will take just a few (2 or 3) minutes to process.

The smallest PDF files by file size are usually blank (about 5-6K indicating that there were no results for that report), therefore, they can be sorted and deleted all at one time.

The instructions above apply to your computer’s user setting. Therefore, this will affect all applications. If you don’t want our printer settings to change then disregard these instructions.

Minimizing Global Calendar Bloat

What to do when you have more Global Calendars than you realize.

For those of you who routinely receive and/or submit P6 schedules, chances are you will eventually wind up with more Global Calendars that you can account for.

This is due to importing/exporting P6 schedules that are have assigned Global Calendars. If the Global Calendar does not exist in your database, P6 creates a new Global Calendar with the same name. Over time, your list of Global Calendars can grow to an unmanageable amount. For this reason, many project specifications prohibit schedule submittals containing Global Calendars.

In P6, you can determine which Global Calendars are used by Projects by selecting Enterprise->Calendars; highlight a Global Calendar, then clicking on the “Used-By…” command button. This method although effective is exceeding time consuming since you’ll need to examine each Global Calendar usage individually.

In Zümmer, there is a much more efficient way to determine Global Calendar usage. From the “Other Reports” menu, select “Global Calendar Usage by Project” or , “Global Calendar Usage by Calendar” then either Preview or Print (See illustrations below).

To eliminate Global Calendar usage, open the Projects listed, and then reassign the Global Calendar to a Project Calendar. Later you can delete the Global Calendars you no longer need.

Documenting Progress Data

The Progress Data report is used to identify those activities that have “Progressed” in the “Modified” Project when compared to the “Control” Project. In Zümmer, activities are said to have “Progressed” when any the following events occur:

1)            An Actual Start is achieved;
2)           An Actual Finish is achieved;
3)           The Remaining duration of an ‘In Progress’ activity is reduced;
4)           The Remaining duration of an ‘In Progress’ activity remains the same and the Percent Complete is increased.

It is important to note that other sources, experts, or organizations may define “Progress” based on varying criteria, however, in general, the above 4 conditions cover the vast share of events.

The Progress Data report does not include activities that are considered “non-progressive” revisions. In general, these include:

1)            Added or Deleted Activities;
2)            Changes to Original Duration without a reduction to Remaining Duration;
3)            Increases to Remaining Durations;
4)            Unchanged Remaining Duration without an increase to Percent Complete.

This report is particularly useful in documenting the Progress Only activities when creating or investigating “Half Step” schedule updates.

The Progress Data report combines the following Zümmer:
[15] In-Progress Tasks With Reduced Remaining Duration
[31] Actualization Report (except for added activities)
[33] Increased Percent Complete (where the Modified Remaining Duration is equaled to or greater than the Control Remaining Duration).

In the illustration below, activities shown are considered “Progressed” because:

Line Item #1: Activity’s remaining duration decreased.
Line Item #2: Activity has completed.
Line Item #3: Activity has started.
Line Item #4: Activity’s remaining duration has remained the same, yet the % Complete has increased.