This article looks at the Project Codes feature of Deltek Cobra and shows how it’s used to augment reporting criteria. In particular, this capability is useful for increasing the flexibility of reporting using a Master Project, where additional top-level sub-total values may be required to clarify the structure of a report.
Project Codes are a global item that is defined and available to all projects in Cobra. A Project Code is an attribute of a Cobra project that is primarily used for reporting. By adding a Project Code to a project you can sub-total on the code value when a report is run. This is particularly useful if you are using the Master Project feature of Cobra and need to sub-total by something other than a level of the WBS.
Defining a Project Code
Project Codes are defined at the global level of Cobra using the Configure dialog. This can be accessed from the Tools | Configure… menu.
In the Configure dialog, the Project Codes tab is used to define the desired Project Code. In this example a project code to place an additional Project ID field is being defined. This value is going to be used to group some sub-projects that are part of a master project but do not share a common WBS structure.
Assigning Project Code Values to Projects
With the Project Code defined, the projects themselves now need the code value added. This is done using the Project Information dialog’s Code Assignments tab.
With the Project Code defined in the Configure dialog, it is now available in the Code Assignments tab for any of the projects in the system. A code value can now be entered at the project level and used for reporting purposes.
Reporting with Project Codes
Project Codes will now appear in the Codes area of the Available Sub-Totals list in the Report Wizard. This can now be selected and used as Criteria for the report.
In the resulting time-phased report example, the Project ID code values have been used to clearly label the projects at the top level of the report.
To read more Deltek articles click here