Forum Discussion
Can Project Plan 1 Online Truly Replace Project Plan 3 Using Desktop Project and mpp files
We can all thank Microsoft Marketing for creating the confusion. Project for the Web is a simple, web-based project management tool that is intended for small and simple projects. Microsoft was originally targeting this tool for people who are occasional project managers and who have little or no formal training on project management concepts.
Project Online is a cloud-based tool that stores all of its data in an Azure database in the Microsoft cloud. Project managers must connect their copies of Microsoft Project to the Project Online system, and then can begin planning and managing their projects in Microsoft Project and saving them in the cloud. In Project Online, all resources are stored in a centralized Enterprise Resource Pool. Project managers can add team members to their projects from the Enterprise Resource Pool and then assign their team members to tasks in the project.
Project Online also offers a web-based user interface known as Project Web App (PWA). PWA offers a Projects page that lists important information about every project. PWA includes a Resources page, which lists every enterprise resource, plus it provides resource utilization and availability information as well. PWA also includes the Tasks page and the Timesheet page which team members can use to submit their task progress on a regular basis. PWA includes an Approval Center page, which is the page that PMs use to approve the submitted task progress by their team members and to automatically update their projects that those task updates.
Beyond all of this, Project Online also creates a Project Site in SharePoint for each new project added to the system. In the Project Site, users can manage Risks, Issues, and documents associated with the project, and manage several other items as well.
The beauty of Project Online is that it can be configured and molded to match how your organization manages projects and people. Microsoft has stated that Project for the Web is going to replace Project Online, but in its current state, Project for the Weg cannot even come close to what Project Online offers.
I would encourage you to give Project for the Web a try to see if it works for you. If it does not, you might want to explore Project Online as well. Your other option would be to keep using the Microsoft Project desktop tool until Project for the Web offers you what you want. Hope this helps.
So back to my original question of Project Plan 1 vs Project Plan 3. Are these both "Project Online" or is Project Plan 1 "Project for the Web."? How does one create a "Project Site" when we have Project Plan 3 and mpp files? Are they imported?
Is there no simple answer? I am now more confused than I was before I posted this question.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/microsoft-365/project/microsoft-project-faq
This site says both Project Online 1 and Project Online 3 licenses include "Project for the Web" so if we're using the Desktop app that comes with PO3, how would we "lose" functionality? Why would a project we create in the desktop app not work in the "web" version?Basically are we stuck with physical mpp files for each project schedule and version of said project schedule since it's not cloud-based in itself requires SharePoint to store them.
- luvsql --
When you import a Microsoft Project schedule (.mpp file) into Project for the Web, you will lose some of the data from your project. All dependencies will be set to Finish to Start, even if they were any of the other three types. You will lose constraints and Deadline dates if there were any in the project. Most importantly, you will lose ALL of the resources in your project. You will need to create a team in Project for the Web and then assign those resources to the tasks in the project. Also, there is no concept of a Project Summary Task (Row 0 or Task 0) in Project for the Web, so you will have to manually create one. To show you this so you can see it with your own yes, why don't you watch a couple of my YouTube videos on Project for the Web at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr-1TuJe6j0&t=42s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIIEiqkh8fc
Hope this helps.Dale_HowardMVP How do we access the mpp files in Project Online if Project for the Web is so bad? We don't want to have to keep relying on all of these mpp files. When we sync with OneDrive it causes massive issues with it creating duplicates because of sync issue. We want to move to the cloud but keep the functionality. Do we just have to stop using Project and buy a cloud scheduler?