Project compare to Primavera

[Carl]

How does updating Project compare to Primavera?

 

[Michael Gerbasio]

Carl,
I haven't used Primavera Project Planner in many years so I couldn't give
you an accurate summary. However, MS Project was basically feature
compatible with Primavera's SureTrak but SureTrak was more geared towards
the construction industry.

Regards-Michael G.

 

[Robin Roe]

I have used both Project and Primavera P5 and in my opinion Project schedules
are generally easier to update and understand. Really depends what level of
granularity you want to report.

 

[kherman]

How do you create a report with Primavera's own reporting tool to show
the per resource baseline hrs vs. the actual hrs? It is so hard trying
to use what comes with Primavera. I can show the budgeted hrs or show
the per role BL hrs but nothing else.

I know I could go to Oracle-Discovery to generate this required report,
but hope someone out there can help me.

Thank you for your reply

Kris

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Kris.

I suggest you post this on a Primavera site.

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[Mark E. Read]

Hi Kris.

I suggest you post this on a Primavera site.

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
Seehttp://tinyurl.com/2xbhcfor my free Project Tutorials











- Show quoted text -

My two cents on the subject is that when considering the comparison
between two sets of software, market share and simplicity are key data
points. Especially when you look at enterprise systems that need to
serve larger constituencies... can you give someone a fighter jet when
really they need a red wagon?

If you look at report generation, basic scheduling, user interfaces...
there are many compelling reasons to stick with Project and the EPM
solution from Microsoft.

--Mark

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

Actually you can re-schedule all project data via Tools, Tracking, Update
Project. You also need to compare Primavera with Project Professional plus
Project Server. Project on its own is not equivalent to Primavera unless you
ignore the database and all multi-project reporting!

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com



message
news:[email protected]...

 

[mikej007]

I have used Primavera versions P3 through to P6 as well as other hig
end tools such as Open Plan Professional over the past 10 years or so a
an expert user for a myriad of projects. Some very large (600 millio
plus) and very small (10-15K)

I would also clasify myself as an intermediate user of MS Project a
well due to my clients occasionly asking for MSP to be used.

I do generally shy away from clients that decide to use MSP as I hav
found that it generally says something about how seriously they trea
project controls and project management.

Put simply if you are serious about using a tool to control you
projects schedule AND costs from start to finish then MSP won't do th
job.

If however you are just interested in creating a project plan to ad
into a business case to show the client that you have thought about th
delivery of their project then MSP is perfectly okay.

If however you want to get a true and accurate picture of the project
resource requirements as well as scheduling conflicts then you need t
use different tool to MSP.

This is really easy to work out.

Develop 2 identical project schedules with resources and add to bot
MSP and any one of the Primavera tools

Create a baseline and go through a cycle of stausing both schedules an
comparing the results

Watch what happens to the critical path and the resource cos
information in MSP as opposed to Primavera

 

[mikej007]

Also worth mentioning that the new enterprise edition of MSP doesn'
really address the validity of the project data on the desktop.

When you are trying to consolidate information such as resource deman
to need to ensure that all the live project schedules are consistentl
up to date at the same time.

Very hard to determine which activities and corresponding resourc
demand are ahead of the data date AKA Time Now. MSP has tried t
introduce this concept which the Status date function mentioned in Rod'
post above but it still allows out of sequence progress i.e. resourc
demand can still be behind the staus date

 

[emily01]

Its quite a general question as to compare both the project management
software, but still if it was to choose one i would surely go through MS
project cause of its usability and simplicity. But in general if we
compare both 'Microsoft project planner'
(http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/planning.aspx) is simple and
faster and is more suitable if you are planning for small project where
you are not using multi-dimensional activity formats. Primavera is more
suitable if you have large number of activities wherein you need to
present activities in different patterns. As MS project uses an activity
to represent the summary bar multi - formatting is not possible.
Primavera uses activity codes so changing the patters is very easy. Also
Primavera can handle large amount of resource and cost data and report
in various formats. But setting up a project schedule in Primavera is
more time consuming so it may not be suit for a small project. Also
Primavera may be difficult for new users but Microsoft Project is very
user friendly and easy to learn.
After going through these two softwares, I would suggest that choose MS
project if you are planning for a project will less number of activities
or you need a quick project plan. Choose primavera if you have large
number of activities and you need to handle complex resource and cost
data. You also need to consider standardization across your organization
and choose the product accordingly because unlike older versions, new
versions do not allow convertibility between MS Project and Primavera.

 

[Zindar]

I have used both extensively and there are already very good comments
posted about why Primavera is a better product. Unlike Microsoft,
Primavera is very closely tied to the user base and the tech-support
staff is reachable via phone and they remember you. Joel and his team
did a great job of building the Primavera SW on the backs of people like
me who asked for reasonable features and they agreed. Microsoft tried a
customer advisory board (I was a charter member) but when Dieter did not
like the fact that we asked MS to fix bugs instead of add new features,
he got exasperated and ultimately they ignored input they did not like.
Then they killed the whole thing.

I must add that Primavera does not release crappy software like
Microsoft. I make my living installing. maintaining, and operating MS
Project Server so don't rush to judgement about my motives. I am just
sick and tired of having new issues arise (especially after installing
"updates"). Seriously, right now I am struggling to answer the question
why baseline work is showing up in non-baselined projects that do not
have resources That is just today's issue. It is non-stop with the
crappy product. And yes I do use some of the best consultants in the
industry who also can't figure out why this happens (don't ask who, but
they help write features for Microsoft and are tied in at the highest
levels of the development team. I have used 4 major consultant firms
from coast to coast and each time I could stump them and Microsft's
techies with issues/bugs).

In short I am experienced in both, I do know what I am doing in the SW
and on the backend and I do think this is a piece of crap. I really hope
better for 2010, but as a power user from the 2002 days, I am not
holding my breath.

Upstream, in the nicest way, I offer that it does not matter right? I
have my opinion and I realize that you have yours. My opinion is not
based on loyalty to either product or development team and I owe neither
of them anything. I have been in planning and scheduling since 1985 at
NASA. I have worked half of my career in oil and gas engineering and
heavy construction (100's of millions of dollars or work in plans -
large stuff) and I have spent the other half in government-related
industries where the file sizes you state are par for a single file and
a program may have 15 of those all interrelated. I have worked with
great IT support staff and mediocre support staff. I, myself, have been
in IT since 1992 but I use SQL experts to configure my SQL servers.

The point is I think MS releases SW way too early and then rather than
fix it they move on to feature development in the next release. Unlike
what some people may suspect, MS does not have unlimited development
resources and I personally think they do not manage those that they
have. I also feel the VAST majority of the development team (and I mean
the people that think of the features - I used to know a lot of them)
have no real world experience using there own product in a production
environment. Primavera was literally built by people like me who had
working relationships to the company because we used the product in real
world setting as what you and I would probably agree to be "mission
critical" software. They listened and the product improved and it did
one thing well. As part of the customer advisory team, a product
developer asked if I wanted the SW to handle my contacts. Say what?!

I am not looking to convince you or anyone of anything. I am relating my
frustation to the comparison of the two products. Everyone can decide
for themselves and more power to them.

My best to all. Z