Deltek Acumen Options (Platforms - Microsoft)

Select the Microsoft products to which you want to link, and set related options.

Get External Data From

The products that you select here display on the S1 // Projects tab in the Get External Data From menu group.

Field Description
Microsoft Project Selecting this option allows you to link to a Microsoft Project file. With Microsoft Project, Acumen links to Microsoft Project (MSP) files using your installed copy of MS Project or by directly reading an .MPP file (without needing MS Project installed on your computer).
Microsoft Project Server

Selecting this option allows you to link to a Microsoft Project Server file. With Microsoft Project Server, Acumen downloads the project data from the Project Web App (PWA) site into Acumen.

  • Web Service Timeout (seconds): Set the number of seconds before the web service times out. The default is 300.
  • Return Project Codes in Project Picker: This setting controls whether Acumen retrieves project code assignments when you connect to an MSP Server project list. If selected, code assignment columns display in the grid on the MSP Server Project Selection dialog box (used when importing a project). This option is cleared by default.
  • Number of Rows per Server Request: Use this option to set the number of rows that Acumen will request each time from the server. For example, if you set the number to 10, Acumen requests the first 10 rows and then goes back for 10 more, and so on.

    If you set the number too high, you may get timeouts on the server. If you set the number too low, the system may become too slow and unusable.

  • Server Type: Select the server version that you are using. If this version is different from the Project Server version that you import, you may have some data discrepancies.

    If you change this setting, you must close and restart Acumen for the change to take effect.

    • Project Server 2013: Select if you are using Project Server 2013.
    • Project Server 2016: Select if you are using Project Server 2016.
    • Project Server 2016 with July 2018 Update: In July, 2018, Microsoft released an update to Project Server 2016 which includes a performance enhancement. Select this option to enable the performance enhancement. If you have not yet installed the Microsoft July 2018 update, this option may cause timeouts on the server.
    • Project Server Online: Select if you are using Project Server Online.

If you change the server type, you need to close and re-start Acumen in order for the change to take affect.

Microsoft Excel Selecting this option allows you to link to a Microsoft Excel file. Acumen's interface with Microsoft Excel provides an open and flexible means of linking to external data. Any data that can be stored as an XLS or XLSX file can be imported into Acumen for analysis.

Microsoft Project

Field Description
Field to use for Activity Comparison in Forensics Specify the field that Acumen Forensics should use to uniquely identify an activity. You can select UniqueId, Id, Guid, or WBS.

This setting only applies to MS Project. For MS Project Server, Acumen always uses Guid.

Load Microsoft Project MPP files:

You can load Microsoft Project MPP files in one of two ways:

  • Using Microsoft Project — You need Microsoft Project installed on your machine if you select this option.
  • Directly Without Requiring Microsoft Project — If you do not have Microsoft Project installed, you can select this option to specify that Acumen should import the MPP files directly. Direct loading is faster but less reliable than using Microsoft Project. This setting only applies to MS Project since MS Project Server does not use .MPP files.
If the "Acumen ID" Field Is Present, Map it to "Id" Select this option to modify the default mapping when Acumen imports a project from Microsoft Project. Microsoft Project does not have an equivalent to Acumen's ID field. Selecting this option allows Acumen's ID fields to be preserved when a project is:
  1. Exported from Acumen to a Microsoft Project XML file.
  2. Edited in Microsoft Project.
  3. Exported from Microsoft Project.
  4. Re-imported into Acumen.

When Acumen exports data for Microsoft Project, it creates a user-defined field called Acumen ID. When Acumen imports a project from Microsoft Project, it looks for the user-defined field called Acumen ID. If you select this option, values from the Acumen ID field are loaded into Acumen's ID field, thus preserving the content.

This setting applies to both MS Project and MS Project Server.

Import External Subproject Activities Microsoft project supports cross-project links. A cross-project link is a relationship between an internal activity (an activity in the current project) and an external activity (an activity in another project). If you select this option, Acumen imports the cross-project links and their external activities.

This setting only applies to MS Project. Acumen does not import external activities from MS Project Server.