(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?
(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.
Hi Guys,
Here are some sample CVS files that load different types of data into Deltek Cobra from tools like Primavera P6 http://bit.ly/zZwb3c
The majority of our Deltek Cobra customers use Primavera P6, so I thought they may be relevant here.
I hope you find them useful,
Emily
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Hi Rafael,
I completely agree with you. If you read my all comments on the use of the words Best Of Breed, I wasn't sugesting that Primavera P6 and Deltek Cobra were my opinion/choices for this title. I merely sugested that these two products seem to be a common choice among the organizations we work with.
I did like your last comments though...very well put!
Emily
Emily,
In the context of US Government procurement it is important to keep the discussion of the possibility of Primavera/ORACLE not being Best of Breed but the contrary, especially when you live in a jurisdiction like mine where it is common to force contractors to use some software brand against their will. Even if Primavera is Best of Breed for someone, or for many it is still wrong tho give it an absolute label for Best of Breed; it would be like labeling a single accounting software Best of Breed and under the excuse of standarization mandate all corporations to use such software if they want to do business with the federal government.
This is not only wrong but illegal in our Government jobs procurement, as a matter of public interest government agencies shall not favor any specific service provider, still the GSA (General Service Administration) insist on such practice. As a matter of fact when it came out in the news a controversial GSA conference it was not to my surprise, but expected behavior.
It is naive to believe it is enough for the government agencies to watch themselves. The GSA is supposed to be an agency that looks for good procurement practices but when they feel is not convenient for them or their favorites they do not enforce good practice. Citizens must continuously call out to the attention of others when such things occur, they must be patient as it is a slow process but in our system at the end usually good prevails. Just look what happeed at the GSA, many lost their jobs but the agency still needs to get rid of some bad practices they got used to, we cannot lower our guard, especially if it affects your industry.
Best regards,
Rafael
Hi Guys,
I think we may be drifting off topic slightly.
Anyway, my Best of Breed statement was made in the context of satisfying a US Government mandated Earned Value Management requirement.
One of the guys here, has just posted a blog that may help explain better the roles of Deltek Cobra and Primavera P6 in this environment and should help to answer you questions. http://bit.ly/Jl7XFT
Thanks and I'm thoroughly enjoying the conversation.
Emily
When a good PM distributes resource usage on a job among the basic things he will look is to keep the resources busy. Therefore if there are idle resources he will assign temporarily some of these resources to activities that can make efficient use of them, at least a better use than just idle. This is called variable resource quantity and workload in Spider Project and while many PM do this in practice ironically their scheduling software usually cannot perform this very basic allocation, an everyday need in many jobs.
I do not believe you can call Best of Breed any software incapable of modeling the most basic resource allocation issues such as the variable resource loading performed very frequently at the jobsite.
In addition to the above Best of Breed shall be applied at a higher level. You shall not limit your resource planning software to your accounting software, here you shall pick up Best of Breed of each, but at the resource planning level subdividing into a good reporting system and a poor scheduling software just because of compatibility does not makes sense.
Take a look at the following figure.
As you can see Activity 1 and Activity 2 can be performed at the same time, but because of resource limitations Activity 2 starts at a lower peace because at the beginning only 2 Trucks 15cm are available , out of an established minimum of 2 and maximum of 6, then when the remaining four are released it speeds up.
In practice this is how at the jobsite resources are kept at maximum possible usage. Any software labeled to be good at resource allocation shall be able to handle such basic issue. Can you imagine a scheduler calling his software best of breed and then the field personnel showing him that common sense tells them otherwise, that it cannot handle the most basic issues.
Therefore if you are talking about best of breed scheduling software I would assume you are referring to software that tan do this very basic allocation.
Best regards,
Rafael
I noticed that Emily wrote about Primavera Cost Management, not P6.
Does P6 produce all necessary information?
If yes why not to export to Excel and create reports there?
It is much cheaper than to buy expensive tool and use it as certain report generator.
Emily,
Is Cobra an enhanced report Generator to make up for poor reporting capabilities in the same way Aurora enhances poor resource leveling?
Suppose a simple report generator got to be cheap.
What about the SPI, it is known to be a flawed metric. Does government knows about SPI being flawed? If they know, then why insisting on using flawed functionality?
To me Aurora makes sense but Deltek as a report generator is too much to swallow.
I have seen many comments here at PP about P6 reporting capabilities being limited but cannot believe they can be this bad, that for a single functionality, EVM, you need another software. Is the difference substantial or it is about more font and color selection?
Best regard,
Rafael
Hi Vladimir,
CPR reports 1-5. These formats are mandated by the USA Government for reporting project performance. Primavera Cost Manger can produce these, but many clients seem to choose Deltek Cobra over Primavera Cost Manager, hence my comments about best of breed solutions below.
If you're interested in learning more about Deltek Cobra, we have an article "Getting to Know Deltek Cobra" which is aimed at folks who are new to the product.
Also, at the bottom of the article, is a link to a 13 minute video demonstrating it. You can read it here http://bit.ly/GEjaW1
Emily
Dear Emily,
can you specify what cost and/or EV reports that are required are not produced by P6?
Best Regards,
Vladimir
Hi Rafael,
In the USA, the government mandates using Earned Value Management on certain contracts. Different Agencies have different thresholds for this - click here for more details http://www.tensixconsulting.com/consulting-services/earned-value-service...
Many organization use a Best of Breed approach when it comes to satisfying this requirement and Deltek Cobra and Primavera P6 are a common choice. Deltek Cobra performs the role of the cost engine and Primavera P6 fulfills the role of the scheduling system. One simple example is that Primavera P6 does not produce the necessary mandated reports which are defined by the government. Other features are related to time phased data and the historical/forecasting trending of this data.
I hope this helps,
Emily
Emily,
Best Regards,
Rafael
Hi Emily,
I just completed writing a tool to make these csv files from a MS Project file. My tool makes the Activity, Resource and Status transaction files to easily import MS Project data into cobra. My tool uses a fiscal calendar to make time scaled resource data by work package, by budget element and by fiscal month from the resource assignments in MS Project. My tool also allows the user to select certain items in MS Project rather than just exporting the entire schedule. This is particularly nice when doing a baseline change on a single work package or a select group of work packages. Feel free to contact me if you want to learn more about it.
Gary Arnold
480 650-1605
Hi Emily,
I just completed writing a tool to make these csv files from a MS Project file. My tool makes the Activity, Resource and Status transaction files to easily import MS Project data into cobra. My tool uses a fiscal calendar to make time scaled resource data by work package, by budget element and by fiscal month from the resource assignments in MS Project. My tool also allows the user to select certain items in MS Project rather than just exporting the entire schedule. This is particularly nice when doing a baseline change on a single work package or a select group of work packages. Feel free to contact me if you want to learn more about it.
Gary Arnold
480 650-1605
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
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