With the looming release of Microsoft Windows 8 (reviewed here), we wanted to know if the operating system would support current versions of Deltek Cobra 5.1. We installed the evaluation copy of Windows 8 and put Cobra to the test.
Before I go on, I want to be clear; this is an independent and informal test by Ten Six to see if the new operating system will support Deltek Cobra. At this time we’re saying nothing about Deltek’s official position on Cobra support for Windows 8. Needless to say, production systems should not be changed until official support is announced by Deltek.
The Deltek Cobra Installation
After getting SQL Server Express 2008 R2 installed and a database configured for Cobra, we ran the DeltekCobra51.exe General Availability (GA) file and proceeded with the installation. While Windows 8 had been painfully slow to install SQL Server Express, along with a compatibility warning, Deltek Cobra’s stand-alone installation went quickly and smoothly with no warnings.
Running Deltek Cobra in Windows 8
Once installed, we started to run some simple tests to find out what we could or could not do. For those who haven’t seen Windows 8 yet, the following image shows Deltek Cobra running in the new Desktop.
For a closer look, here’s the Integration Wizard in action – Windows 8 style.
And finally, here’s Cobra with a project opened. As you can see, apart from the new design of frame around the window, the content of Cobra looks pretty much the same as in Windows 7.
Results
The following is a list of the fundamental steps we took to test Cobra running on Windows 8. As you’ll see, all the major functionality seems to be solid. For a few ad hoc tests we created ancillary files and tested other items such as running the Analyze view, adding and deleting control accounts and work packages as well as making a few manual resource assignments. All of this worked well. We then did a full up test to restore a shell project, load a baseline from a Microsoft Project XML file right through to updating the project and creating reports. Here are the specifics:
Ad-hoc Tests
1. Create Rate file – OK.
2. Create Resource Calculation File – OK.
3. Created a Calendar File – OK.
4. Created Control Accounts and Work Packages – OK.
5. Assigned Resources to Work Packages – OK.
6. Reclass Budget to Forecast class – OK.
7. Ran and tested the Analyze view – OK.
End-to-end Test
1. Restore project shell from CMP file – OK.
2. Integration of Project Baseline Data from Microsoft Project XML file – OK.
3. Advance Calendar – OK.
4. Status Integration from Microsoft Project XML file – OK.
5. Load Actuals from CSV file – OK.
6. Calculate Earned Value – OK.
7. Calculate Forecast – OK.
8. Run CPR Format 1 – OK.
9. Export to wInsight – OK.
Conclusion
Everything within the scope of this test worked well and there didn’t appear to be any issues with Deltek Cobra 5 running in Microsoft Windows 8. Assuming nothing changes with this Windows 8 between now (build 8400) and the final release on October 26th 2012, it does appear that Deltek Cobra will likely work within this new operating system.
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