PM Compass is designed to be an extension of Cobra, Open Plan, and Microsoft Project, but you can easily import information from other systems into PM Compass, or even use it as a standalone system. In addition, you can schedule the import and export process to occur automatically to streamline the integration process.
The list of projects in PM Compass is stored in the same table as Cobra’s project table. A field in the project table indicates if the project is visible in Cobra, PM Compass, or both. When a project is created in PM Compass, the project is not visible in Cobra until you create a project with the same name in Cobra. You are prompted to confirm that the project name entered already exists in PM Compass before creating the project in Cobra. At that time, the one project is visible in both PM Compass and Cobra. If you have a project in Cobra and you want to make it visible from PM Compass, use the Project Visibility feature. This reduces possible confusion when Cobra contains many copies of the same project for what-if analysis and others. It also allows you to create a project in PM Compass before the ancillary data such as the WBS is complete. When you are ready, the one project file is in both products.
PM Compass stores the project data (control accounts, work packages, time phased data, and others) in Cobra’s project tables. Similarly, PM Compass uses Open Plan’s tables to store activity information. The General Import feature is used to import data from other scheduling tools into Open Plan’s tables.
Using the tables from Cobra and Open Plan has a number of advantages. It is real-time integration with Cobra and Open Plan. The General Import/Export features are very flexible in allowing you to configure how the data displays in PM Compass. This integration can be scheduled to occur at regular intervals. PM Compass appears as a single product regardless of the source system.
PM Compass uses the workflow to store information from the source system, such as the statement of work and progress, until the information is approved. After approval, the Update Source step action in the workflow copies the information stored in the workflow to the project, control account, or activity tables, for example, the Cobra and Open Plan tables. If your scheduling source system is something other than Open Plan or MSP, the General Export feature is used to extract the information that was updated in the workflow.
The configuration and automatic creation of the workflows is performed in Workflow Type Configuration. This feature allows you to define what can be edited by the assignee, who the assignee is, who can edit the data, who must approve the workflow, and when/if the source system is updated.
Make Cobra projects visible in Deltek PM Compass