Which is better to use for project management

2. KEY POINTS:
PRODUCT KEY FEATURES
PRODUCT PROs AND CONs
USER REVIEWS AND/OR
FEEDBACKS

10. REVIEWS AND/OR
FEEDBACKS:

11. E-mail Print
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:

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

13. 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.

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

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

16. 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.

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

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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...

24. REVIEWS AND/OR FEEDBACK

26. 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
REVIEWS AND/OR FEEDBACK

27. 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 AND/OR FEEDBACK

28. 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.
REVIEWS AND/OR FEEDBACK

29. 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
REVIEWS AND/OR FEEDBACK

30. 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”.
REVIEWS AND/OR FEEDBACK

31. 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.”
REVIEWS AND/OR FEEDBACK

32. 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.