Integrating Microsoft Project and Project Server with Deltek Cobra

In the Public sector and Private sector, Pinnacle often uses Deltek Cobra as part of an Earned Value Management System.  In all cases Cobra must be integrated a scheduling tool: Microsoft Project (MSP), Microsoft Project Server or often Oracle Primavera.

Cobra can work with many different scheduling applications, including OpenPlan, MSP and Primavera.  Ultimately, it can receive data from any application as long as the data is relevant and can be exported into a CSV or XLS/XLSX file format.

For each OpenPlan, MS Project, MS Project Server and Primavera, Cobra offers a rigorous validation check that allows Cobra to grab necessary data from the native project files.  The Cobra integration with Deltek OpenPlan allows data to be "pushed" back to OpenPlan.

For MSP specifically, there are three ways to grab data, which can be differentiated between MSP and MSP Server.

Flat Files

For Cobra integration with MS Project and MS Project Server, it is possible to generate a flat CSV or XLS/XLSX file that has the necessary data fields.  This is the simplest format and allows a great deal of control of the data going into Cobra.  The downside to this method is that you need to have some sort of translation mechanism to convert the data from the native MS Project files into this file format.  Deltek does not support and specific application to do this.  Many companies have developed their own tools to grab the necessary data.  Pinnacle has used the Export forProject tool for this purpose.

XML Files

If you save the MS Project or Project Server data to an XML format, Cobra has the ability to utilize it's "Integration Wizard" functionality to parse through the data and grab what it needs.  The benefit of this method is that there is no need for any type of middle-ware to get to the data.  The downside to this however, is that the XML files can grow enormously in size and it is often difficult to get the exact resource spread out of MS Project and into Cobra, especially if the project is using a non-month-end reporting/fiscal calendar (e.g., last Sunday of the month or 4-4-5).

Direct Connect

This method is designed to work with MS Project Server only.  It allows you to connect directly to the Server database and grab the data it needs.  The huge benefit to this method is that there is no need to export data or save to a particular format and provide it to the Cobra Administrator of have it placed up on a shared drive.  Instead the Cobra user can simply access the Integration Wizard configuration and grab the data he needs.  As is the case with XML file method, the downside is that it is still difficult to get a detailed and accurate budget spread.

Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages.  There is really no right overall solution, as it depends on the client environment and expectations.

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