The Sandbox project is a temporary project in Cobra. This project has the same name as the system generated change number, the project description is the change request title, and the owner is the PCA for the project.
The cost sandbox project is comprised of the control accounts and all work packages within the control account that have an activity or work package that changed. These other work packages are included in the sandbox project to ensure the control account before and after values displayed on the change request form include the work packages that did not change. Only the activities in the change baseline or those that were added manually in the Change Details view are loaded into the live Cobra project on the complete step.
The temporary project is not created until the Change Details View is saved or when the scheduler clicks Save or Approve in the Open Plan Add-In. Since there are a number of validations required when creating the class information, the class and cost set are created in the source Cobra project when the change request is created. When the change details are saved, this information is moved to the temporary project. If the change request is not saved, or is deleted, the class and cost set are deleted from the source project.
When work package or control account data is entered (including milestones, notes, codes, and so on), that information is stored directly in this temporary Cobra project. When there are work packages that do not have activities with resource assignments assigned to them, and you manually enter costs on the work package, this information is also saved in the temporary project. This is useful for material, subcontract, or other direct costs that are not in the schedule.
When activity data is entered or changed, that information is loaded into the temporary Cobra project when the workflow cost system schedule integration process step action is executed.
Important: You should not edit data in this project. Make all changes in the Change Details view.
If the costs do not appear correct in the Change Details view after returning from the schedule, check the temporary project and process log in Cobra for details about the integration. See View the Cobra Process Log for steps.
The way data is stored in the temporary project depends on the options selected on the Change Details on form tab of Workflow Type Configuration. This design promotes increased visibility into approved budget data that might shift in time due to the change request even if it is not a change class. Since other forecast classes should be recalculated when the forecast dates change, those classes are not copied to the temporary project.
When the change class is a budget class and the change request type Model Change as option is set to:
A New or Changed Amount: The temporary project has all of the approved budget classes and the classes from the cost set selected on the Change Details on Form tab. The change details grid on the change request form is calculated using the cost set data in the temporary project for the requested totals.
A Replacement of Existing Time Phased Data: The temporary project has all of the approved budget classes and the classes from the cost set selected on the Change Details on Form tab. The change details grid on the change request form is calculated using the cost set data in the temporary project for the requested totals minus the target class. The target class is the class selected in the When Workflow is Complete, Move to Class option.
When the change class is a forecast class and the change request type Model Change as option is set to:
A New or Changed Amount: The temporary project has all of the classes from the cost set. The change details grid on the change request form is calculated using the cost set data in the temporary project for the requested totals.
A Replacement of Existing Time Phased Data: The temporary project has all of the classes from the cost set. The change details grid on the change request form is calculated using the cost set data in the temporary project for the requested totals minus the target class. The target class is the class selected in the option When Workflow is Complete, Move to Class.
When you view the time phased costs in the Change Details view, the data comes from a combination of the source project and the temporary project. The default selection is the cost set selected in Workflow Type Configuration and the change class. This information comes from the temporary project. If you select a cost set that includes classes that are not in the temporary project, the entire cost set is retrieved from the source project.
Changes to Downstream Control Accounts
When a change request involves moving a successor activity in a different control account, the ‘downstream’ control account is loaded into the temporary project. The Create Downstream Workflows step action looks for these other control accounts in the temporary project to create downstream change requests. The dates used in the change request can be viewed in the temporary project.
Run a Cobra report on a change request