Using Cobra Data To Develop an EAC or Budget Changes by Owner/Manager (OBS, CA or WP)

Step 2 - Creating the Workbooks

Once you have the data defined in Using Cobra Data To Change BAC or EAC (Step 1 - Generating the Cobra data) you can create multiple workbooks to change BAC or EAC.

Generated Workbooks EAC or BAC

If you choose BCWR/BAC you have the option to set a change control period (LOCK past + X)

Let's look at the files used to produce the workbooks and the BCR/ECR Settings.

The first list item below is the settings imported for this particular instance. This is the image of the settings after they are uploaded in the Options Tab (Calendar and Rates are also included in this file).

In this example a workbook was created for each Control Account Manager because column A from the report generated was by CAM (Second List Item Below). In our scenario that created 4 workbooks.

The files used in the .gif above are below if you'd like to try it out yourself.

This settings file was used for Calendar, Primary Rates and Secondary Rates
Cobra Data was exported via SQL Command Utility (this can be any report builder as well)
[Optional] The Project Data Report was exported in the Report Wizard in Cobra
[Optional] The Time-phased Report was exported in the Report Wizard in Cobra
[Optional but highly recommended to help with Cost/Schedule Integration] The IMS Status/Activity File was exported from MS Project via the ItMakesSense Add-in

You can find more information about the Activity/Status file on the EV Integration (half way down the page)

This creates the following workbooks

DOEJ20200221T121104.xlsx is a good example for us to look at but before we do that let's look at SMITHR20200221T121057.xlsx. Notice how in Column AU (Multi-use) there are 5 rows that read "CA CPI-TCPI (-0.15)." This is because your settings state that the task owner should do a review of this EAC since the absolute value of CPI-TCPI is > 0.1. Another thing to notice is the Enable Events message in cell A1. Enable events only works on the workbook it's activated on but helps ensure that drag and drop and Cut and Paste are not used. Copy and Paste is okay but the former destroys the conditional formatting. Again, this is another option from the BCR/ECR Options above.

Going back to DOEJ20200221T121104.xlsx, let's enable events under the ItMakesSense menu OR choose this one DOEJ20200221T121104EventsDisabled.xlsx that disables this option. You will notice that many of the rows are red. Because we imported the schedule, what's in Cobra doesn't match the schedule. You now have a cost/schedule integration problem. Instead of going through all of the options to solve this I will show you the easiest way. The following .gif shows the use of the Edit Wizard to auto-spread based on available hours to the dates in the schedule.

The red dates tell me I have an issue. In this case my Cobra dates have been moved out significantly based on the latest schedule status. (The blue area is actual cost and is locked) You'll notice I scroll over and you'll see dates "opened" (white background) where the new schedule is telling us the dates are. It's significant on purpose, the schedule moved from 2016 to 2020 but with the .gif below you can see how easy it is to spread the work where it should be. Also, we could manually remove the old data and add the new but I'd recommend you get all task owners a version of this tool. As you can see, all rows are quickly update. Column AV (Usage) is the amount that will be curved if you choose this option. You can manually adjust Usage if you need to before you curve.

Now, notice how this has changed the cost because of the drastic date move. You'll also notice I switch between dollars, hours, and heads using the Totals menu.