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PREPARED BY: TABAMO AND LARA

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

KEY FEATURES

KEY FEATURES

KEY FEATURES

KEY FEATURES

KEY FEATURES

PROs and CONs

PROs and CONs

REVIEWS AND/OR
FEEDBACKS:

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:

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

REVIEWS AND/OR FEEDBACK

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

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

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

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 thats 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 wasnt required to have
it installed to do administrative functions, we wouldnt
REVIEWS
install AND/OR
it at all.FEEDBACK

Roshan P Vani says:

Michael well written article. You do a great job
explaining the pros and cons 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

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.