PPM-16:Taking the Pain out of Cobra Implementation

Paul Sample, CACI

• Overview of Cobra Implementation

• Cobra user feedback

• Problem we needed solve

• Structure and Setup

• Automation overview

• Desired Future State of Cobra

Cobra Implementation Charter• What problem we were trying to solve?

– Drive consistency across CACI to ensure all programs conduct program cost planning/management in a consistent and disciplined manner

• How we solve the problem?

– Ensure PMs/PCAs have unified and fundamental understanding of Cost Management

– Deploy a robust cost management tool (Cobra) for programs to plan and manage their cost plans

• High level scope of the project:

– Train end users (PMs and PCAs) on fundamentals of Cost Management and Cobra

– Deploy cost management tool as part of a phase-based enterprise roll out

• Success Objectives:1. Plan and Prep: Environments tested and operational; all required data interfaces and business processes with CACI business

systems established; training, operations and communication plan developed; (IOC milestone)

2. Pre-Launch Testing: Existing 5.1 transition to Cobra 8 and BGs Program prioritization; (FOC milestone)

3. Implementation Life Cycle (ILC): Completion of Cohort milestones

4. Post Implementation Support: Fielding ongoing operation and support issues

Project Team Structure & Governance

OpEx TeamSamir D. – PMMatt S. - Chief

ArchitectPaul S. - Impl. Lead

Infrastructure Lead

(CIS)

Systems/Data Interface Lead

(Finance)

Business Process Lead

(Finance)

Deltek Lead

Training Lead

(OpEx)

Lead

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Bi-weekly Status update/Final Decisions

MonthlyFeedback and

communications

Executive Stakeholders Committee (ESC)President of Ops, SVP of Finance., SVP of CIS, SVP of OPEX

Monthly Executive Reporting

WeeklyScrums

Implementation Team Roles• Project Manager – Develops and manages schedule; manages relationship with stakeholders; reaches out for

resources across functional areas; leadership reporting and briefings

• Implementation Lead – Single POC leading implementation life cycle ensuring PMs and PCAs are making sustained progress with the tasks associated within Cohort implementation life cycle (Program planning/setup, establish cost baseline, load actuals and variance analysis)

• Chief Architect – Envisions comprehensive end-to-end functional solution; drives all architecture decisions; oversees change management program

• Business Process Lead – Single POC responsible for working all finance/accounting related policies, procedures and business processes from an end-to-end standpoint;

• Infrastructure Lead – Single POC to lead and manage all CIS related tasks pertaining to s/w, h/w and infrastructure procurement and setting up Cobra 8.1 production environment

• System Data Interface Lead – Single POC for tasks associated with finalizing all prudent data exchanges between Cobra and other CACI Corporate systems (CostPoint, CAPS, etc.)

• Communication Lead – Ongoing stakeholders engagement and communications

• Training Lead – Develops Training plan, approach, content and overall strategy to deliver training to the end users

• Deltek Consulting SMEs – Provide on-demand SME support for Cobra setup, custom reports and CostPoint integration

Cost Mgmt. Tool - Value Proposition to PM/PCA• Cost Management Tool (Cobra) enables

Centralized and Streamlined way for programs to perform cost management

Integration with Corporate systems (eg. CostPoint to receive “actuals”)

Ability to easily feed program forecasting data (ETC/EAC) to CAPS

Point and click Reports generation

Pre-defined out of the box reports

Data feeds to generate PMR report

Program analysis & reportsControl Account 31Jan20 28Feb20 31Mar20 30Apr20 31May20 30Jun20 31Jul20 31Aug20 30Sep20 31Oct20 30Nov20 31Dec20 Cumulative

1.1.1 / 1.ENG.CLARK Key Plans

Budget 3,986 6,995 5,696 5,803 9,760 5,569 2,052 0 0 0 0 0 39,859

Actual Costs 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Variance 3,986 6,995 5,696 5,803 9,760 5,569 2,052 0 0 0 0 0 39,859

1.1.3 / 1.ENG.CLARK 3D Modeling

Budget 30,234 26,111 27,485 30,234 30,234 25,213 16,864 9,198 0 0 0 0 195,572

Actual Costs 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Variance 30,234 26,111 27,485 30,234 30,234 25,213 16,864 9,198 0 0 0 0 195,572

1.1.4 / 1.ENG.SCHULTZ 2d Const Dwg Extraction (Units

Budget 0 0 0 0 0 41,250 191,233 110,088 82,588 0 0 0 425,160

Actual Costs 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Variance 0 0 0 0 0 41,250 191,233 110,088 82,588 0 0 0 425,160

1.2.A.101 / 1.MFG.FRM1 Assemble Unit 101 wing unit

Budget 25,997 3,545 0 0 0 0 1,836 12,851 10,424 8,441 0 0 63,094

Actual Costs 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Variance 25,997 3,545 0 0 0 0 1,836 12,851 10,424 8,441 0 0 63,094

Prog. Qualification Criteria for Cobra Implementation

Assessment Overview

Managing …

Coping = 22

Strugglin…

Total Cobra Programs = 32

Managing

Not a Good Fit = 6

Meets Cobra Criteria …

Total Cobra Programs = 32

No

Category Comments

Managing

All programs within this category are EVM programs

Dedicated Resource

PM and PCAs are actively engaged

Scope based WBS and Resource Plan for managing cost

Coping

Performing monthly updates to stay “green” - Program gains little value from Cobra and using spreadsheets for Cost Management that’s working (Spreadsheets have not be validated for Compliance by OPEX)

Issues with loading monthly actuals into the tool

Complex set up, lack of data integration and automation with other systems requiring manual data entry

Lack of understanding between execution-based WBS and Charge string

In addition to maintaining Cobra, Programs use Excel to satisfy reporting requirements that Cobra can’t reproduce, duplicating data entry into two tools. (Duplicating work efforts)

Limited participation from the PMs and some PCAs

Applying the decision Tree removes 4 program from this category (18 total fits Cobra criteria)

Struggling

Cobra cannot replicate certain Financial Spreadsheets submitted to customer – “Cobra cannot replace the current spreadsheet and would therefore, be double work”

Applying the decision Tree removes 2 program from this category (3 Total fits Cobra Criteria)

Feedback from the Operating Group Management• Load of Actuals from CostPoint

– Teams are experiencing upload errors - PCAs having to work multiple validation issues

– Process requires going back to WBS for multiple updates prior to successfully ingesting monthly actuals

• Cobra Set up Process is Complex– Steep learning curve making set-up process trial and error approach as the tool is

learned

– Need additional focused training videos to aid PMs/PCAs tackle the set up process

• Custom Reporting

– Some programs require double entry of data in Cobra and Excel to meet reporting requirements

– No web-based Dashboard functionality

• PMs Engagement – PCAs perform the heavy lifting

– PCAs looking for more PM engagement during the set up

Cobra Program Feedback StatusBG Program Name Category Meets

Cobra Criteria Y/N

Alternate Solution is

working

Lack of Bandwidth

Technical Glitches

Tool Complexity

No Value Prop.

EIT DHS Desktop 2-Coping Yes X XEIT ITEMS Transport2-Coping Yes Up to date on Monthly processEIT AFCENT NOSC 2-Coping Yes XEIT FAA IHC 2-Coping Yes X X XEIT NASA JSC 3-

StrugglingYes

X X

EIT VISN 2-Coping Yes X XESS MC-4 3-

StrugglingYes

X

ESS NRO NFIS 2-Coping Yes XESS NMMES 3-

StrugglingYes

X

MSS ARAT 2-Coping Yes X XMSS NFL 2-Coping Yes X XMSS PPDSS 2-Coping Yes XMSS ATTSI 2-Coping Yes X XMSS CERDEC Flight

Activity2-Coping

YesX

MSS PEO IWS CSS ILS and Acq

2-CopingYes

X X

NCS J3 Cyber Command Rapid

2-CopingYes

X X X

NS JCITA 2-Coping Yes X XNS MACSS 2-Coping Yes X

CACI Cobra User Feedback • Tool is not as flexible for integration of data as anticipated

– Data has to be loaded in a certain formats that don’t align with existing resource plans.

• Templates for program startup are complex and confusing– Must have control accounts and work packages defined– Redundant data setup in multiple Deltek tools(resource, rates, actuals)

• Tool exports resource data in one format(Name vs. resource ID) • Limitations on calculation for resources since resource calcs are attached to

Resource IDs.– HOLA/COLA/HDP

• Lack of automation capabilities other than MSP, Open Plan, etc.• Errors are hard to understand and fix

Sometimes things don’t go as planned……

Problems We Need to Solve• How can we make the integration of data

more smooth for users?• How can we use the data that is already

available in other Deltek systems?• How can we utilize existing Cobra features

to do this?• Can we use API to help with some of these

other automation issues?• What items are we looking for Deltek to

resolve?

Program Mgmt. Life Cycle Process Mapping- What can be automated?

Capture Initiate/Planning Execution Close-out

Generate BOEs

Excel

Excel

Build Time Phased Resource Plan

& Establish Cost Baseline

Identify Resources and PLCs

Build Procurement Plan

Collect Actuals

Conduct Variance Analysis

CDM

Pricing

PM

PM

PM

P2P

Generate Porgram Level

Forecast (ETC)

Load Forecast to CAPs

Cognos

PCA

PM

PMExcel Cobra

CobraExcel

PCA

Excel

Build Program WBS

and Charge Strings

PCACostpoint

CAPS PCA

PMCDM Cobra

Foundational WBS

Program Scope

Resource Assumptions

CLIN and Schedules

PCA

Cobra

Excel

SmartView

Cognos

Program Management Lifecycle

MS Project

CDM – Detail view

CDM

Generate Charge Strings

Align Employees to PLCs

Authorize Charge String Usage (Workforce

Authorization)

Purpose

Financial data utility for loading project setup

information upon program award by the PCA

community. System for charge string, PLC,

and WBS creation and alignment.

Align WBS to Charge Strings

PCA

PCA

PCA

PCA

Basic Cobra Concept FlowCobra

Load Codes (WBS)

Load Resource List

Load Rate List

Load Calculations

Create Control Accounts &

Work Packages

Create Program

Calendar

Create Project Shell

(Main File)

Load Resource

Plans

Maintain Program

Baseline/EAC

Load Charge Strings

Load Actuals

Export Plans for CAPS

(Cognos for SmartView)

Produce Program Reports

and Analysis

Charge Strings are

Related to WBS

Purpose

Program planning at the execution level

focused on scope and commitment to

customer as part of a program EAC.

PCA

PM

PM /

PCA

PCA

PCA

PMPM

PM /

PCA

Path Forward (Phase 3 – Planning)

• Address feedback received from BGs with regards to Cobra Implementation

• Data Integration and automation Project Shell Chargestrings Loading CostPoint Actuals Resource Link/feed to Cobra (Emp ID/PLC) Rate Link (Direct, PLC rate) Program Calendar Program Control Accounts and Work Packages

• Cognos Upgrade– Ability to produce Custom value added reports

[based on Cobra data]– Explore the possibility of web-based dashboard capability

Phase 3/4

Milestone

Notional DatesOn-Going/Ops

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Jan Feb Mar April May JuneJuly Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

CACI FY2018

Cobra DB Exposed to Cognos

Cost Management - Implementation Life Cycle (ILC) Cohort Deployment

Cost Management - Phase 2

CACI took Control ofCM Training

Post ILC support Phase

Cohort 3 Cohort 4 Cohort 5

Actuals FrequencyIncreased (Bi-monthly)

Cobra-CAPs Data Exchange (Design and Proof)

CM Decision Tree

Custom Reports (PMR Report)

Cost Management - Phase 3/4

Explore Cobra Webservices

Portfolio Level Data Fields

Contract Type Specific Standards (Cobra)

Pricing and BD Use-Cases (Pilot)

Explore Custom Hooks(Such as Automatic generate new WP after Actuals Load)

Workflow Automation: Data Extracts (CostPoint)

Cognos Upgrade – Build Custom Reports and Dashboard

Phase 2

Cohort 6 Cohort 8Cohort 7 Cohort n

Cognos training/acces to OpEx

Loading CostPoint Actuals

Resource Link/feed to Cobra (EmpID/PLC)

Rate Link (Direct, PLC rate)

Common Alternative Tool for non-Cobra Prog.

CostPoint to Cobra WBS Alignment

In-progressCompleted

Cohort 9

Cobra 8.2 Upgrade

Explore publishing Cognos reports in Project+

WBS & Chargestring

Phased Approach to Cobra Rollout - 1yr delay to resource availability

Corporate Systems – SV1 (Financial Systems)

BIG

P2P

CES

ContractsCES Sales

CAPSCostpoint

v7.1.1Workday

WebET/

SubETCDM

(Proprietary)

(SQL Server)

Homegrown

(Oracle)

(SQL Server)

(Proprietary)

(Hyperion

Planning)

(SQLServer)(SQLServer)

(SQL Server)

WD to CP• Employee Data & Salaries• Bonus & OTP• Leave Types• Locations

CP to WD• Org Structures• Vacation Balances• YTD Hours by Employee

BIG to CP• Employee

Expense Reports

CP to BIG Reports• Org Structures• Employee Data• Leave Data• Vehicle Data• Outstanding

balances

WD to BIG• Employee• PreHire Data

CP to WD• ADP Earnings

CP to P2P• Employee Data• Voucher

Payment Details

• WBS

P2P to CP• Supplier Data• Purchase Orders• Approved Supplier

Invoices

CES-C to CP (CACI_T)• Project Data• Contract Mods

CP to CES-C• Employee Data• Org Structures• Vendor Data• Project Owning

Orgs

CES-C to P2P• Contractual Project Strings• Opportunities

CES-C to CDM• Contractual

Project Strings• Contract Mods

CES-S to CDM• Opportunities

CDM to CAPS• Org Structures• Forecast Project

Strings• PLCs• Employee

MetadataCDM to CP• WBS• PLCs• Allocated Funding

CDM to ET• LCV Project Strings

ET to CMS• Timecard Data

CP to CMS• GL Data

CP to ET• WBS• PLCs• Org Codes• Locations• Leave Data

ET to CP• Timecard Data• Subk Vchrs• Leave Data

CP to CAPS• P&L Actuals (Including

Fixed Assets)• Balance Sheet Actuals• Contract Funding• Labor Expenses

CP to CDM• Org Structures• Employee Data

WD to ET• Employee Data

Contracts & Procurement

HR

Accounting & Finance

BD

Various

System Key

Transaction Key• Via CACI_T Table

• Via Core Table

Cobra

(SQL Server)

CP to Cobra(Via Cognos) Actuals

Cobra to CAPs(Via Cognos) Project Plans

Cognos

Deltek Products Only CostPoint CES-C/S WebET/SubET Cobra

Program Financial Systems Overview

Cobra/CostPoint Integration OV1

Phase 3 - Focal Areas

Customer facing dashboards & portals (Cognos V11 upgrade)

CostPoint

Cobra

CAPs

CognosFrameworkAutomation

Program Plans(Baseline / Forecast )

Focal Areas: Data Integration and Automation Data Exploitation – Dashboards/Reporting/Portal Deltek Product Improvement – need rapid product enhancement focused on Services oriented work

Charge Strings Resources Rates WBS

Attacking the Challenges of Data Automation

PCA Workflows

Customer facing dashboards & portals (Cognos V11 upgrade)

CostPoint WorkDay

Cobra

PCA Creates new employee in CDMagainst Vehicle & PLC

CAPs

CognosFramework

CES-C / S

PCA Creates new Charge String(WBS Alignment)

PCA Consumes Actuals Data (or Extracts)

PCA Creates new PLCs and associations (project-level definitions)

Automation

Program Plans(Baseline / Forecast )

Focal Areas: PCA Workflow Smoothing & Automation Data Exploitation – Dashboards/Reporting/Portal Deltek Product Improvement – need rapid product enhancement focused on Services oriented work

Represents automation supported activity.

Automation Design Overview (Scope)

Automation Activities/MilestonesCategories Status Due Date Comments

CACI Resources

Employee Names June 30

Project Labor Category June 30

Direct Rate June 30

SubK Resources (Names, PLC)

Employee Names, TBD Lack of solid mapping between SubK employees and projects within CostPoint and CDM is preventing the ingest of SubK resource data relevant to projects. Received approval to implement this in Phase 2

Project Labor Category TBD

Direct Rate TBD

Indirect Rates (based on Sector and Bid Pool)

Overhead June 30

Fringe June 30

G&A, etc. June 30

Rate Calculations June 30

Project Charge Strings June 30

Project WBS June 30

Project Actuals

CACI Labor June 30 Comprehensive validation testing in-progress

SubK Labor June 30 Comprehensive validation testing in-progress

ODC June 30 Comprehensive validation testing in-progress

Travel June 30 Comprehensive validation testing in-progress

Automation Sustainment – O&M SupportJuly 15

Availability of key CIS members due to other pressing priorities supporting FY20 Cutover and re-org

Case Scenarios alignment July 15

Documentation

Design/Integration Specification Document June 30

Migration Source Code June 30

Test Plan and Scripts July 10

Admin and User Guide July 10

End-to-End Testing (Test Environment)July 31

Validation testing underway; noticing inconsistency towards the business process surrounding CDM utilization

End-to-End Testing (Prod. Environment) Aug 15

Overall Automation Process Flow

ResourcesAPI Files

SQL Files

Rates

Projects Actuals

Inputs

Outputs

Cobra

NewWPs.csv

ActualsLoad-1.csv

ActualsLoad-2.csv

CDM

Actuals Export

Project Export

Windows Scheduler Tasks

Resources

Rates

Projects Actuals

CostPoint

CreateTemporaryNewWorkPackages.sql

ExportTemporaryNewWorkPackages.sql

CleanupTemporaryNewWorkPackages.sql

CreateNewProjects.sql

CreateNewRateFiles.sql

CreateNewCodeFiles.sql

AddResourceCodeField.sql

AddLaborResources.sql

AddLaborResourceCalculations.sql

AddGenericResources.sql

LoadPLCRates.sql

LoadEmployeeRates.sql

LoadBurdenRates.sql

UpdateBurdenRates.sql

AddRateSets.sql

LoadFTERates.sql

AddVendorIDs.sql

PrepareActualsProcess.sql

ExportDIRECTandHOURS.sql

DetermineCurrentMonth.sql

ExportBurdens.sql

Process Components

Phase 3 – Automation Tasks

• Most items achievable will direct SQL injection and iteration.

• End goal – Actuals Automation from CostPoint Leveraging data templates for ease.

Subcontractor data sources limited for automation.

Investigated assumption and initial validation complete.

CDMCobra Project

flag toggled in CP

Project-Employee Listing

Project-PLC Listing

Employee Direct Rates(Or contract Rates)

Contract WBS(Charge Strings)

File Exists? Or Ensure Creation Present Each Time?

CODE FILE RESOURCE FILE RATE FILECALC FILE

Windows SQL scripts

COBRA API

Present State• No mapping exists when users CP WBS differs from

Cobra WBS.– User must maintain or add cross-map when performing

any Actuals integration into Cobra (at least monthly).– Cross-map must be maintained for

baseline/ETC/actuals.

• User Feedback– Concern over lack of integration with CostPoint (manual

adjustments and maintenance of side list)– Seen as more work than previous state

• Other observations– Synchronization becomes an issue– User processes become fractured across community– Users do often leverage a different WBS than their CP

WBS (need for better alignment)

CostPoint Cobra Mapping Value• Leverage existing CostPoint (CP) mapping value field.

• Maintain and use the PCA use-case of aligning to the process of building Charge String.

Add additional data column to CDM.

Users enter Cobra WBS upon Charge String creation like other data for strings.

Follows standard Charge String guidance for opening/closing –enforcing rigor through existing processes.

Such as field mapping becoming rigid upon creation – requiring ledger adjustment to move costs between CP/Cobra WBS once defined. [Standard process.]

• Field usage could be expanded in ‘generic’ manner for non-Cobra programs to add value to Charge Strings (meta-data)

• Many existing reports do not allow for extract of this CP Cobra WBS Column today.

CostPoint Cobra Mapping Value Field

*Field not currently in use and part of Project Table

CostPoint Help File - Cobra Mapping ValueDeltek Guidance• Use this field to enter a Cobra mapping

value. The Cobra Interface uses these values to link Costpoint projects to Cobra programs. If you select the Project Cobra UDEF option in the Costpoint Mapping column on the Manage Cobra Charge Templates screen, you can enter a user-defined value in this field and use it to link to a value in the Cobra system. You generally use this field if there is a value in Cobra that is not easily linked to anything in Costpoint. Existing CDM to CP mappings:

Implementation Team Recommendation• Proceed with Cobra Mapping Value Option

– Recommended by Deltek guidance– Internally aligns to Finance processes for Charge Strings– Clearer path for alignment across Cobra user community– New Field may be exploitable by non-Cobra users

Other Items• Improve Guidance on CP WBS generation

– Identified a need for improved training and maybe guide to improve how people originally create their Charge Strings (from a theory standpoint).

Cobra Mapping Value Purposes

Automation Builds New Project

Automation Process Builds a Resource File

• Builds the Control Accounts and Work Packages(chargestrings) for each project to collect Actuals

• Dates are based on Start and Finish of the project unless updated.

Automation Activities

Cobra Automation – New Gained EfficienciesPhase Original Cobra User Activities Automation activities Gained Efficiency

Program Startup

Activities

• Generate, collect and load the WBS Code

• Generate, collect and load Program Resource list with PLC and Org code

• Generate, collect and load charge strings

• Generate, collect, and load Direct Rates for every Program Resource

• Generate Indirect Rates per resource for associated Org and Bid pools

• Create and Build Program Calendar hours and working days

• Build Control Accounts and Work Packages

Cobra Ancillary files created at startup are automatically created based on the data entered in CDM/CostPoint to establish• New Project shell• Resources file• Rates (Direct and

Indirect) file• Calendars file• Charge strings loaded to

Control Account• Actuals Loaded to

Chargestrings

• Data coming directly from system of record improving integrity

• Analyst only enter information into one system, instead of multiple systems

• Original Cobra Setup of files are loaded overnight vs 2-3 weeks of work from the PFA gathering and transforming data into Cobra template files.

• Direct and Indirect Rates(including forward pricing rates) and Resource Calculations are loaded to each program via the automation. 3-6 hours of work

• Calendars are setup automatically for the program based on the CACI productive hours- 1 hr of work

• Charge strings are automatically loaded to control accounts that have CDM mappings-1 day of work

• Actuals are loaded into chargestrings Bi- Monthly- 1-2 days of work

Large(IPPS-A, RCAS)

Med(CAMMO, CDM)

Small(NRO NFIS)

Monthly Operation Activities effected

• Update New Resources• Update rates as necessary• Add new charge strings• Load monthly Actual Cost

from Cobra Burden Cognos Report

Automation activities are occurring nightly and any new data from systems of record get uploaded into Cobra.Exception is actuals which get loaded Bi-Monthly.

Large programs will save up to 40 hours of work previously spent updating the monthly data

Medium size programs will save 16-24 hours of work previously spent updating the monthly data.

Smaller size programs will save 8-16 hours of work previously spent updating the monthly data.

Note: Phase 2 of the automation will focus on integrating SubK resources to Cobra (similar to CACI) to further streamline planning and tracking

Total Efficiencies Anticipated• Existing Cobra programs do not receive the benefits that the

automation provides for setup

• 891-1,350 setup hours lost opportunity

• Annual Recurring Savings anticipated for existing Cobra programs• Small: 96-192

• Medium: 576-864

• Large: 2,400

• Total: 3,072- 3,456

Cobra Programs

Large• 6

Medium• 3

Small• 1

Data Integrity Improvements Immeasurable

Integration Method

PROS CONS

Schedule MSP/OPEN PLAN

• Easy to import via wizard• Easy to Map to Cobra

• Only works if your program uses a schedule

• Good Scheduler required

Cobra Flat file integrator

• Loads all data including resources and CA/WP

• Difficult format for converting existing data

Import/Export Assignments

• Format mirrors program resource plan

• Strict formatting rules • Lack of change capability

API or SQL Manager

• Allows for automation of task that users already performed in another tool

• Difficult to setup• Requires coding expertise• Additional cost • Risk to maintain

What methods of integration are your program using?

Desired Future State of Cobra • Load and Maintain meta-data

at the Resource Level

• Import Assignments and Extend Cas

• Application Level Resource File Template

• EPM SA – File Permissions Groups into Categories

• Zero Out functionality- Allow user to select more than one CA or WP

• Allowances (Hola/Cola Other) –need to do more than linear formulas on calculations

• Consistency in Wizard Selection Functionality

• Access and Audit of WORLD or GROUP

• Actuals Post Valid Records Fix

• Calculation Changes Copy Calculations Not Available

• Integration file not recalculating after import

Questions?

THANK YOU!!

Load and maintain meta-data at the Resource Level (High)• Users are needing to load and maintain meta-data at the Resource level not just the CA or WP levels.

• Cobra Composite Key Fix for Estimates

– Cobra is currently slightly more limited than Deltek MPM in how it can hold Unique estimates at a Resource level. Specifically,

• In the TPhase table it holds data only as Program|CAWPID|CECODE|CLASS|DF_DATE.

• It would extend Cobra considerably to allow for holding data at another level of fidelity such that some RESASSIGN_ID was also in that list, so you could have more than one entry in a WBS for a given resource.

• Right now, the way it’s designed you won’t be able to pull in any PO, Invoice, or real meta-data outside of the CA-WP level.

– In Deltek MPM the combination is: WBS|WP|RES|DEPT|OT|XREF where OT and XREF are extensible text fields that can be held as unique values for any line item entered (resource assignment). This differs significantly from the Cobra construct where items are more often ‘unique’ against the WBS (CA1, CA2, and CA3) only.

• Use Case Ability to Ingest Actual data with Cross-System Fidelity

• Our users have expressed a strong desire to easily translate entries between CostPoint and Cobra. In the current build, Cobra is unable to facilitate this beyond a WBS|RES level.

– Specifically, Cobra holds values as noted above Program|CAWPID|CECODE|CLASS|DF_DATE,

• When a program has multiple entries in a month as Actuals these get aggregated at the combination above. A user is then unable to retain fidelity into areas like Travel or Subcontractors at the Resource Assignment level.

– Specifically:

» Program A|WBS1-WP1|TRAVEL|ACTUALS|201706| $50,000 ß fidelity is lost for what 10 employees composed the 50k of travel. Users must then back into this value by going to CP and attempting to derive the root from Ledger entries.

• In MPM, a user can retain this flexibility by using OT or XREF to load in a unique ID from the Accounting system to cross-relate the entries below the RESOURCE level.

• Use Case Ability to Ingest BASESLINE/FORECAST data with high-level fidelity

– If a team employees anything other than EMPLOYEE ID (such as PLC) for planning, the composite key causes all entries of the same PLC on a combination area to fail. In the case of teams where multiple team-members share a PLC and work in the same area, this means 5 employees collapse into one line. Making Cobra unable to support staff and resource planning.

• In Deltek MPM, using OT or XREF to isolate individual employees resolves the complexity of requiring all users to have EMPLOYEE-ID based RESOURCES.

Import Assignments – Extend CAs• Something that’ll really help improve things in Cobra for non-EVM (people without schedules)

programs is attention on Import/Export Assignments. I consider this to be our second-highest enhancement request for applying Cobra to non-EVM programs.

• Right now there are some EVM-only business rules in place.– The import feature doesn’t allow you to shift CA level dates, only WP level.

This means anyone who is wanting to do updates has to identify/ensure all dates are properly extended before trying to load resource information – rather than just allowing updates to flow through this mechanism.

– For EVM programs with schedules, this may be great. – For non-EVM programs this is a real pain and means that getting data into/out of Cobra is

harder than it should be.• Enhancement Request #1:

– Add a toggle box that disables/enables the business logic to allow users to extend CA dates via Import Assignments based upon whatever time-phase data exists.

• Enhancement Request #2:– Also – add a toggle box that disables the business rule that looks at the Cell A1 for project

Name and if the name is spelled wrong at all – the entire load won’t work (makes a lot of sense)

• E.g., Project: 31155_SITEC: SITEC Specialties ç Spell that right every time or else.• NOTE: would be nice if the only thing it was doing was looking at KEY IDs, if you aren’t

careful throughout (CA & WP) it will also bomb on spelling related to Descriptions. Something that should be removed or toggle-able off.

Application Level Resource File Template• When running a large or N-Tier environment, an enterprise may

desire to simplify the significantly complicated process of setting up a RESOURCE file. (RESULTS) and making setup easier for users.

• When building a new PROJECT – administrators can enable an application-wide default Project Template, which facilitates PROJECT level setup in an easier manner (settings, classes and cost sets).

• A similar option for the complicated back-end of RESOURCEs is only possible using a WORLD Resource file that gets shared to Cobra users.

– These users must then open this file, save it as their own.

– They must then remove WORLD access and isolate it to their group. (introducing risk that they do not or miss this step).

Enhancement: Allow for RESOURCE files to share in the ease-of-use path that Projects have by enabling administrators to push a DEFAULT RESOURCE FILE TEMPLATE that is then able to change if a user so needs. (such as to an alternative starting template).

EPM SA – File Permissions Groups into Categories• In Cobra EPM SA,

– You create user• Align to role – establishes the tool and menu items you can

enable/disable.• Align to groups – this establishes a bundle of files they can see inside

Cobra– At CACI right now our GROUPS are PROJECTS so that individual projects

do not see/have the ability to modify other user files.

• Problem:– If a GROUP is a PROJECT you are unable to align users, such as managers,

to more than one project without going through the list in EPM SA and manually finding all items that meet the criteria you desire (Such as Business Group – or some other ‘category’)

– This becomes a maintenance problem as new Projects when created would not only need to be aligned to STAFF on those contracts, but then individually to any manager/super users.

• Enhancement:– Enable categorization to exist where a user can be aligned at a category

level to enable cross-group permissions (vision/edit) for Manager/Super Users

Zero-Out Data functionality (Case # 171218-000334)• Feedback from Deltek

– Cannot in any way get rid of BCWP (Earned/Performance) from Cobra– Cobra 8.1, releasing at the end of the year, will not include this

enhancement. We will look to get it added in the next available release. – We found, to get rid of BCWP you must:

• Use SQL to delete BCWP #-values• You must then individually line-by-line right click/delete the Resource-level BCWP

entries from the database.• This should be the same as other classes – both FORECAST classes and

PERFORMANCE classes are missing from Zero-out data. Deltek should fix this significant design gap.

– In Zero-out data menu, allow for multiple CAs/WPs, Resources to be zero-out in drop down menu (by selecting specific accounts)

Allowances (Hola/Cola Other)• We were working to figure out a way to model certain relationships in Cobra that occur on a lot of OCONUS contracts. Were able to

figure out how Apportionment works as a potential option for portions of that – but some relationships remain out of reach at the moment.

• We have instances like the following where users are struggling to plan the estimates in Cobra using anything but manual side-sheet math.

• Resources receive hazard premium as a % of effort in a region. [Apportionment may work in some cases – although it appears to have a problem in it assumes you want to factor a source result and retain that value: E.g., 100k Direct labor à asks you to factor it by some rate à factored value becomes DIRECT on the apportionment resource. This wouldn’t be true – rather it would be only some premium on G&A and the like.]

• Resource receives premium pay based upon some criteria: such as premium pay for first 40 hours worked in a period. For that 40 apply factor and receive %-based premium pay with unique value. Doesn’t appear to be possible in Cobra at this time, rather users must use side sheets to calculate where these instances exist. (No logical capability in calculations – only math operators.)

Scenario Resource Location Allowance Hours DIRECT Dollars: BURDENS $ Hazard $

HOURS WORKEDTINA @ $60/hr (Direct)

Deployed to Afghanistan

Hazard Pay % 35190 hoursforecast in September

$ 60 * 190 = 11,400

[DIRECT * Burdens]

[DIRECT * G&A * 35%]

Base Salary (Capped)

TINA @ $60/hr (Direct)

Deployed to Afghanistan

Hazard Pay % 35190 hoursforecast in September

$ 60 * 190 = 11,400

[DIRECT * Burdens]

[LIMIT: 40hrs * DIRECT * GA * 35%] Cobra RESULTS are a math basis where I cannot really do more than linear relationships. I cannot, say, estimate 160 and then only capture the first 40. And then apply a factor.

Consistency in Wizard Selection Functionality

• In Cobra, multiple tools offer “filter” criteria that allow you to isolate a process to a specific WBS, CA or area.

• However, most of these wizards are limited to singular selections – rather than multiple selections. Yet – Cobra DOES have one wizard where this more advanced iterative selection criteria exists.

Deltek should commonize at this more powerful feature and extend the capabilities of its other wizards (like Recalc, Reclass, and Zero-out data) to allow for multi-selection options for items like CA/WP.

Why? Currently a user would have to run Zero-out data multiple times if trying to do surgical changes. For example: Zero-out 52 work package baselines in various control accounts. Each of these items would have to be individually run via zero-out data.

It already exists: Yet, when using Assignment Export: the option to individually select and export the 52 areas would be allowed.

Access and Audit of WORLD or GROUP

• Users in Cobra in N-Tier environments can place files against WORLD.• There is no way in Cobra to generate a list of files (or a FIELD) which

identifies if files are placed against WORLD or any specific GROUP.• In this way – if we want to audit/clean WORLD we have to either:

– Manually review each file– Generate a BATCH file and run ACCESS on every single PROJECT within the tool.

• This method has a defect: any un-associated CODE/RATE/RESOURCE files could still be part of a GROUP like WORLD, but would not show up on the audit.

• No security manager tool appears to exist (vs. Log File audit/review and Configuration Security tools) – correction of any mis-aligned files would require manual adjustment of each specific file set.

Actuals Post Valid Records Fix• Currently – if a user wants to post current period data and have Cobra

post valid records (Item 2 in image) – you cannot use this option UNLESS you also replace existing costs (item 1 in image). This flag field MUST be toggled off if you want to load in a file with non-unique line item entries for WBS/WP/RESOURCE/DATE level information.

• This means that then a user cannot partially load or get their import file to load correct items and produce a record and fix only ‘error’ lines using the current period data option.

• Instead a user must go back, fix their file, and reload the full import.

• If your error was ONE or TWO lines – your whole import fails and you have to potentially start again (go through the whole larger/slower process).

• This is commonly occurring and a large frustration point for our users.

• Additionally – ACTUALS can only be loaded via CSV. This is the ONLY report in Cobra where this is true – seems to be some vestigial organ.

Calculation Changes Copy Calculations Not AvailableA user cannot modify calculations (copy calculations) if calculations already exist on a resource.• If a user wants to make a correction or adjust a calculation due to a defect

they must:– Either manually delete every result– Delete the RESOURCE entirely and re-build it.

A user should be able to COPY CALCULATIONS over existing results if so desired. The Cobra tool would simply need to over-write the calculations if they exist (e.g., remove existing) prior to Copying Calculations if results already exist. This is a simple quality of life change.• For instance, if an error is found to affect more than one resource – a user

would currently need to do one of the following:– Delete all resources and rebuild manually.– Re-import their resource calculations for all resources. (using excel

transaction file).In the future – with this change a user could simply copy calculations, as they can for ‘blank’ resources – and then change the DIRECT or other RATE SETs that require changes – while leaving the residual items alone.

Integration File not recalculating after import• When loading a well-formed Integration > File (Combined Activity and Resource file)

the Cobra project (attached) is not recalculating results despite creating the record assignments for the CLASS targeted. (Import file is .xlsx file).

• The entries show Results from: First Result to FTE, but then do not calculate any direct or further entries in RESULTS.

• User must manually recalculate despite having selected RECALC results on import.

This significantly affects our user community as 100% of users are directed to use the more powerful combined activity and resource file method. We now have to change training programs due to a defect in the tool and or caveat that a fix is incoming.