General Tab of the Project View

Use this tab to view or modify general information for a control account or work package.

Contents

Field	Description
Status	This field displays the status of the selected control account or work package. The status changes depending on the dates that you enter in the Dates group box. Planned: The control account or work package has not been started, and there is no actual start date. In-progress: The control account or work package has been started, and an actual start date has been entered. Completed: The control account or work package has finished, meaning an actual finish date has been entered. The status of the control account depends on the status of its work packages. If all work packages under the control account have a status of Completed, the control account's status automatically changes to Completed, using the actual finish date of the latest work package. The status of the work package depends on the status of its milestones or steps. If all milestones or steps under the work package have a status of Completed, the work package's status automatically changes to Completed, using the actual finish date of the latest milestone or step. Deleting an actual finish date automatically changes the status of the control account or work package back to In-progress. Deleting an actual start date automatically changes the status of the control account/work package from In-progress to Planned.
Description	This field displays a description of the selected control account or work package.
Dates	Use this group box to modify project dates. You can also modify these dates in the Spreadsheet pane. All dates must be within the calendar used for the project. Attention: To know how Cobra uses the project dates, see How Cobra Uses the Early and Late Dates. Baseline Use the Start and Finish fields to enter the baseline start and finish dates. When you modify the baseline dates for a control account, the new dates must be within the calendar periods defined for the project. When you modify the baseline dates for a work package, the dates must be within the control account dates. Actual Use the Start and Finish fields to enter the actual start and finish dates. You cannot enter an actual finish date for a control account if at least one work package under that control account has a status of Planned or In-progress. Selecting the Allow removing of actual finish date for a completed Control Account/Work Package option in the Project — Preferences tab of the Project Properties dialog box has an impact on the project status. The Finish field for Actuals in the Dates group box is disabled when the control account or work package has a status planned. The actual start date cannot be later than the status date of the project. The actual finish date cannot be later than the status date of the project or before the actual start date. Forecast Use the Start and Finish fields to enter the forecast start and finish dates. When you create a new control account or work package, the Forecast start and finish dates are the same as the baseline start and finish dates of the control account or work package by default. Entering actual start and finish dates automatically updates the Forecast Start and Forecast Finish fields with the same dates. Early Use the Start and Finish fields to enter the early start and finish dates. When you create a new control account or work package, the Early start and finish dates are the same as the baseline start and finish dates of the control account or work package by default. Late Use the Start and Finish fields to enter the late start and finish dates. When you create a new control account or work package, the Late start and finish dates are the same as the baseline start and finish dates of the control account or work package by default. Pending Use the Start and Finish fields to enter the pending start and finish dates. When you create a new control account or work package, the Pending start and finish dates are the same as the baseline start and finish dates of the control account or work package by default. If you adjust any of the start or finish dates of the selected budget or forecast resource assignment, and the new dates extend or shorten the time-phase periods of that resource assignment, the Spread Curve column in the Spreadsheet pane changes to Manual.
Progress Technique	The progress technique determines how earned value is calculated. Select the progress technique for the work package. Depending on the progress technique selected, additional information may be required.
% Completed	This field is available only if you select the % Complete or % Complete Manual Entry progress technique. Use this field to enter a percent complete manually for each status period. The value entered means that at the current status date of the project, this percentage of work is completed for the work package. For example, if you entered 20 in this field, 20% of the work package has been earned. The % Complete Manual Entry progress technique works the same way as the % Completed progress technique except that Cobra does not update work packages using the % Complete Manual Entry method when the status is loaded from the schedule.
Apportioned to	This field is available only if you select the Apportioned progress technique. Use this field to select a work package to which the budget for the referenced work package will be apportioned. Click to display the Work Package Lookup dialog box, where you can select a work package. Cobra first calculates the percentage of the referenced work package that is already complete and applies that percentage when calculating the earned value for the apportioned work package.
Resource Assignments	This button is available only if you select the Assignment % Complete progress technique. Use this button to display the Resource Assignment Percent Complete dialog box, where you can enter the percent complete value for each resource assignment individually.
Units to do/Units complete	These fields are available only if you select the Units Complete progress technique. Use the Units to do field to enter the number of units that remain to be completed. Cobra calculates the earned value as the work package budget multiplied by the number of tasks completed and divided by the value in the Units to do field. Use this method when the work package contains a predefined number of similar tasks.
Opening %	This field is available only if you select the User Defined progress technique. Use this field to enter an opening percentage to be marked as earned when the work package opens. The rest is earned when the work package is completed. Use this method only if the work package spans a maximum of two fiscal periods.