With the release of Deltek Cobra 8, there is finally a way to easily leverage the powerful coding capability in Cobra using the new Code Tab. The ability to assign codes in Cobra has been around a while, but the full impact of this capability has been muted because working with coding (assigning reporting attributes to a control account, work package or resource assignment) was never very easy from an end user standpoint. With Cobra 8, Deltek has made managing the code assignments easy and intuitive.
In 5.1 you could add up to 9 codes to the control account, work package or even the resource assignment. These codes could be used for things like charge numbers, location, department, anything you might need to slice and dice your program data by. Simply go into project information of a project and click on the “Fields” tab in the Project Information dialog.
There was only one problem…once you had created the code assignment (i.e. making the field available to use) the only place you could see the coding through the Cobra interface was to add a column to the project view in Cobra 5.1. Which meant if you had a work package code you would still see the column even if you had the view expanded to the Control Account level…not the most intuitive not to mention wasting valuable space on the main interface to the project.
With Cobra 8 that issue goes away. Deltek has added a Code Tab to the tabbed interface for each level within the project. So when you have selected a Control Account in the new project view there is now an easy, intuitive place to see and assign code value.
As you click through the project structure the relevant codes are displayed.
Even down to the Resource Assignment…
The Code Tab access opens up the functionality that was always there (at least since 5.x) but hidden by no easy to use interface. The Code Tab is a great example of a small change that will have a big impact to the way people use Cobra. It opens up a whole new level of reporting that will be leveraged going forward.
Way back in the day, folks used to worry about having enough code fields. Deltek solved that with 9 codes at each level of the project (Control Account, Work Package and Resource Assignment) and codes on codes. But now, they are out front and easy to use. We’re looking forward to seeing how this change helps integrate Deltek Cobra with other project control systems in the near future.