Cobra 8.3 Help System

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File Format for Importing Status Information

Status information consists of actual dates, forecast dates, and units or percent complete.

Because statusing a work package automatically statuses the control account where it belongs, explicit statusing of control accounts is generally not necessary. Statusing work packages is therefore the most common case. Statusing milestones is necessary for those work packages whose progress technique is Milestones.

The structure of the import file for work package status must contain, at a minimum, fields that identify the work package and two date fields, Asd and Afd, representing the actual start and actual finish. If the work package uses the Milestones progress technique, Cobra uses the milestone ID in order to identify the transaction.

Import files for status information must be stored in CSV format. Use the Integration wizard to import these files into a Cobra project.

Note: Milestone records require only the Afd field as milestones do not have a start date.

If the work package is in progress, the Asd field should contain the actual start date, and the Afd field should be empty. In addition to setting the actual start date of the work package, it marks the work package as in progress. If the actual finish date is also set then the work package is marked as complete.

The import file can contain the optional forecast date fields Esd and Efd. These fields are ignored if the corresponding actual fields contain data; otherwise, they update the forecast dates in the work package.

The import file can also contain fields for the percentage and units complete, depending on the progress technique in force for a particular work package. In addition, the import file can contain forecast early and late dates to use with a forecast.

The following table is an example of a work package status import file:

The control account fields (Ca1-Ca3) used for your project are displayed as they are in the project information and are required.

If you export earned value data from Cobra and make changes to the .csv file, you can import this file back into Cobra in order to update the work package data. On the Status page of the Integration wizard, you must select the Update early and late dates check box. In addition, you can  use this file for direct entry of Earned Value data by selecting the Calculate the Work Package percent complete from EARNED/BAC > in the file check box. When you select this check box, Cobra calculates a percent complete value for each work package that exists in the import file using the formula Earned Value / BAC.

Field Type Description Required
Afdate Date Actual Finish Date Y
Asdate Date Actual Start Date Y
BAC Numeric Budget at Complete (for Earned Value % Complete)

Earned Value Numeric Budgeted Cost of Work

Performed (for Earned Value %

Complete)

Be Character Budget Element (for BE %

Complete)

Ca1 Character Control Account Field 1 Y
Ca2 Character Control Account Field 2

Ca3 Character Control Account Field 3

Class Character Class (for BE % Complete)

Earlyfd Date Early Finish Date

Earlysd Date Early Start Date

Efdate Date Forecast  Finish Date

Esdate Date Forecast Start Date

Latefd Date Late Finish Date

Latesd Date Late Start Date

Ms Character Milestone ID

Pc_comp Numeric Percent Complete

Units_comp Numeric Units Complete

Wp Character Work Package ID Y