A Microsoft Project alternative for project controls
Microsoft Project is the most familiar scheduling tool there is: a planner, a file and a Gantt chart. It stops being enough when the schedule has to carry an estimate, actual costs, earned value, risk and a portfolio, and be read by everyone at once. DeltaSys opens Project files as Project XML and writes them back, so moving is gradual.
Where a desktop schedule runs out
- One file, one planner. Sharing means emailing copies; working together means a server edition and more licences.
- No cost model behind the dates. Rates can be entered, but there are no rate build-ups, quantities, classed estimates or rules of credit for measuring progress.
- Earned value as columns. The fields exist, but recording periods, comparing this period with the last and acting on thresholds is left to spreadsheets.
- No risk analysis or change control without add-ins, and no roll-up across projects without another product.
Project XML: the exchange format
Microsoft Project saves a full project as XML (File, Save As, choose XML), a published format that carries tasks and the outline, dependencies with types and lags, calendars, resources, assignments and the baseline. DeltaSys reads it as a project with the outline as its WBS and baseline 0 as its active baseline, and writes it back for Project to open. The binary .mpp format is not read directly; save as XML first.
What changes after the move
- The same Gantt chart and critical path, in a browser, shared with the people you invite, with viewers and executives free.
- An estimate behind the schedule, from rates and quantities, handed over as a resource-loaded baseline.
- Earned value recorded period by period, with CPI and SPI this week against last week and to date.
- Monte Carlo risk on the schedule and the cost, with a risk register mapped to activities.
- XER exchange with organizations that use Primavera P6, which Project does not offer.
Questions
Can I keep using Microsoft Project for some projects?
Yes. Export Project XML from Project, open it in DeltaSys, and write it back when someone needs it in Project again.
Do summary tasks come across?
Yes, as the WBS: the outline becomes WBS levels and the tasks under them become activities.
Related: project scheduling software and CPM · a Primavera P6 alternative.
Primavera and P6 are trademarks of Oracle Corporation; Microsoft Project is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation; PMBOK is a trademark of the Project Management Institute; AACE is a trademark of AACE International; Last Planner is a registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute. DeltaSys is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Standards are described in our own words; see the publications themselves for their text.