Primavera vs Microsoft project

Vs.

PREPARED BY: TABAMO AND LARA

KEY POINTS:PRODUCT KEY FEATURES

PRODUCT PROs AND CONsUSER REVIEWS AND/OR

FEEDBACKS

KEY FEATURES

KEY FEATURES

KEY FEATURES

KEY FEATURES

KEY FEATURES

PROs and CONs

PROs and CONs

REVIEWS AND/OR FEEDBACKS:

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MS Project and Primavera are both reputed software for project planning, reporting and progress updating, tracking. Both the software are used worldwide and they have their own benefits.There are several differences between MS Project and Primavera P6. The following are the differences between Primavera P6 and MS Project:

Baselines

In MS Project only 11 baselines can be created. In Primavera unlimited baselines can be created.

Multiple User Access

MS Project doesn't allow multiple users to work on a single project at the same time, Primavera allows you to do that. In Primavera you can even specify what features of Primavera a particular user can use, and which he can not.

Issues & Risks

MS Project lacks the feature of tracking project issues or risks. In Primavera, we can record issues and risks.

Web Support

Primavera plan, documents and other information can be converted to HTML directly from the software. MS Project doesn't have such option.

Steps

Steps in Primavera allows you to create sub-activities (steps) of an activity. Each step can have its own start and finish date, and a completed step can be marked as completed. This useful feature is missing in MS Project.

Expenses

Besides Costs, in Primavera project expenses e.g training, travel, etc can also be added, in MS Project we can not.

Custom Fields

Both MS Project and Primavera allows us to create custom fields. But MS Project even allows us to set complex formulas or use fields and add additional values to it, to use in the custom field. In Primavera we can create a blank custom field, but can not set formulas to it, so users have to manually enter values in each in the field, for each column.

Multiple Activity Relationships

In Primavera P6, more than one type of relationship can be established between activities e.g we can have FF and SS between the same two activities. In MS Project only one relationship can be made between two activities.

Project Website

The Primavera P6 software can create a comprehensive website comprising of complete project details including activities, resources, reports, risks, issues, WBS, and everything that has been entered in the software. This website is very valuable feature and is not present in MS Project.

Multiple Project Creation, View and Tracking

• In Primavera multiple projects can be created and viewed. This can be done in MS Project too but since MS Project is not intended for multiple project use, it doesn't allow us to do things like we can do in Primavera like multiple project tracking, multiple project or WBS comparisons, cost and units calculations.

• There are many more minor differences between Primavera P6 and and MS Project but above list is of major and prominent differences between the two software.

WBS (Work Breakdown Structure )

In Primavera P6 WBS is created separated from activities. Once WBS has been created, then we can add activities with each WBS element. Whereas in MS Project, activities are indented to make them look like WBS.

SOURCE: http://www.scientificera.com/.../312-primavera-vs-ms...

REVIEWS AND/OR FEEDBACK

A review from Prescient Solutions Group

Provides project managers and schedulers the one thing they value most: control. Primavera P6 Professional Project Management, the recognized standard for high-performance project management software, is designed to handle large-scale, highly sophisticated and multifaceted projects. It can be used to organize projects up to 100,000 activities, and it provides unlimited resources and an unlimited number of target plans. Massive data requires sophisticated, yet highly flexible organization tools to provide you a multitude of ways to organize, filter and sort activities, projects, and resources:

• Balance resource capacity• Plan, schedule, and control complex projects• Allocate best resources and track progress• Monitor and visualize project performance versus. Plan• Conduct what-if analysis and analyses alternative project

plans


A review from Prescient Solutions Group

PSG is an Oracle Gold Partner, and we proudly hold an Oracle Primavera Specialization. This stems from our nearly 20 years’ experience in delivering Project Management solutions. We can assist organizations with integration needs to leverage Primavera P6 Professional Project Management day with other business critical and mission critical data.

Organizations with immediate requirements can benefit from a streamlined PPM deployment and the option to seamlessly leverage capabilities as their needs mature. Companies with established project management and governance processes to implement the full functionality of Oracle Primavera Software.


Reviews about the book Oracle Primavera P6 Version 8: Project and

Portfolio Management The book is one of the most comprehensive titles

I have read on Primavera. Each module whether the Thick client or the Web Module has been explained in great detail and easy to understand language. I just hope a few more examples were used to cover all the functionalities explained in the book. The book is quite extensive and will suit all readers may it be Beginners or experts. There are a lot of books in the market explaining the Standalone client in great detail but Daniel has made sure that the web module is explained thoroughly and this will suit all the Enterprise users of Primavera.


The author's have taken on a wide scope and have done so well. Written to be "a gentle introduction to P6″, Williams and Krazer cover Oracle's Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management tool from end to end. The focus is on 3 main areas:

• How to use P6 to build schedules• Basics of Portfolio Management and Analysis• Resource Management


There is even an appendix chapter on integration of P6 with cost management systems like Peoplesoft or JD Edwards.

• I recommend Oracle Primavera P6 Version 8: Project and Portfolio Management to any user, new or seasoned, of Primavera P6 EPPM. It's a valuable and detailed reference for a complex and sophisticated project management tool.

Brooks says:• “We use EPPM, but I wish we could use it without the

web client. The web client is slow and not an effective scheduling tool for anyone that’s used to working *quickly*.I think Primavera/Oracle either needs to completely re-write the web client or ditch it because our schedulers will *never* use it. If I wasn’t required to have it installed to do administrative functions, we wouldn’t install it at all”.


Roshan P Vani says:• “Michael well written article. You do a great job

explaining the pro’s and con’s for each package. I am curious if you think P6 is slowly migrating to the web based environment and plans to phase out the windows based software. I do not see thing happening any time soon but that appears to be the trend as they moved all admin functionality to what was P6 Web.”

Kent Vaughan says:• “My company is currently using 6.7 SP4. We rolled

this tool out about 2 years ago and had so many issues with the PV webtool that most folks abandoned it. Even when it was performing as designed, the design was so poor and functionality so limited (i.e. filtering) that no one wanted to use it. It can only improve in 8.2.”


CONCLUSION

If you are heavily involved in a project or multiple projects, and you are requiring to computerize every detail of your project you should go for Primavera P6. Or if you are working on a single project that doesnt require you record details other than activity schedule, resource list, and assignment details, use MS Project as it is simpler.

Engineering

Primavera vs Microsoft project