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Deltek Cobra Advanced Calculated Fields

June 18, 2020

Here are some tips on how you can create calculated fields in Deltek Cobra to perform arithmetic operations (such as add, subtract, multiple, and divide) in the Spreadsheet pane the Project view.

by Alan Kristynik, PMP

Field Names

Cobra allows you to define multiple field names in a calculation. When creating field names in Cobra, consider the following rules:

  • Field names may contain only alphanumeric values
  • Field names may not contain special characters
  • Field names may not contain spaces
  • Field name may not exceed 59 characters

Expressions

The following is a list of permitted Expressions as mathematical operators to use for Calculated Fields in Cobra:

  • Add, +
  • Subtract, −
  • Multiply, *
  • Divide, /
  • Group, ()

The expression may contain any property from the Applies to Table field (a read-only field and displays the value selected on the New Calculated Field Dialog Box), that has a numeric data type. Mathematical operators are evaluated according to the normal rules of precedence: Cobra performs grouping operations before multiplication and division operations Cobra performs multiplication and division operations before addition and subtraction operations

The following calculated fields are examples to enable Financial Analysts, Control Account Managers, and Project Managers to not only display and report the results using Deltek Cobra, but also to export to Microsoft Excel for further in-depth variance analysis of project performance as a basis for corrective actions to Control Accounts where applicable:

Calculated Field Assumption Definition
EACcpi Estimate at Completion (EAC) − Critical Performance Index (CPI). Typically, the EACcpi formula provides a lower bound, or the most optimistic IEAC EACcpi = ACWPcum + (BAC − BCWPcum)/CPIcum
ETCefficiency A calculated Estimate to Complete (ETC) based on efficiency-to-date measured by the CPI. Used to determine the calculated EAC and to compare to management (CAM) ETC ETCefficiency = BAC − Earned

Display Project View

To display the Project view, either:

  1. Click Cobra > Open > Projects, and select the project that you want to update and click Open.
  2. In the Cobra Explorer, click Deltek Cobra Projects Projects, and then double-click the name of the project file in the Projects pane

Creating an Advanced Calculated Field

To display the Calculated Field Expression dialog, go to Tools > Custom Fields > Deltek Cobra Calculated Fields Calculated Fields. Click New:

Deltek Cobra New Calculated Field

In the New Calculated Dialog Box, enter the name of the field and click OK:

Deltek Cobra Calculated Field Expression

Summary of Advanced Calculated Fields

The above calculations were configured in Cobra for use by all projects. In addition, a Project View was also created to display these advanced calculations:

Deltek Cobra Calculated Field Expression

Create and Save View:

Deltek Cobra Save Current View

Here is the Advanced Calculated Fields view in Cobra:

Deltek Cobra Advanced Calculated Fields View

Right mouse click and select Copy View to Excel:

Deltek Cobra Copy View to Excel

This is how the Advanced Calculated Fields view looks in Microsoft Excel:

Microsoft Excel Advanced Calculated Fields View

Summary

The application of Calculated Fields in Cobra expands the analytics and analysis of project data to help the project team forecast project costs based on prior period(s) performance using other inherit and more traditional earned value metric calculations.

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Posted on June 18, 2020, by

Dick Eassom, CF APMP Fellow, SMA, Inc.