Which Microsoft PPM Solution is the right fit for you?
Microsoft has three main options when it comes to Project Management Solutions: Planner, Project for the web and Project Online. Each of the options comes with varying capabilities out-of-the-box with going from basic to robust functionality for PMOs. Throughout this article, we will be discussing what specific capabilities customers get from each Microsoft plan. If you are on the Microsoft Office 365 platform, these Project and Portfolio Management applications will empower your PMO and Project Management Teams to collaborate and manage schedules in a more effective way.
Planner
For everyday task management, Microsoft provided Planner as a part of your O365 subscription. Planner is its own app which can be found in Microsoft 365. Planner can also be added into your existing Microsoft Teams. Planner is a simple, Kanban-style board with drag and drop functionality to determine task progress. In Planner you can create tasks, set due dates, and assign those tasks. Tasks can also be marked as Not Started, In Progress, or Completed and organized into determined buckets.
Who should use Planner: Planner is best utilized for light-weight, day-to-day task management.
Project For the Web
Project for the Web is similar to Planner in that is a board-style with the drag and drop feature to organize tasks, but gives the user more capabilities. It is cloud based and can be connected to the Power Platform to extend its capabilities.
Project for the Web allows for task management with dependencies with Gant chart and timeline view, document sharing and collaboration. The most exciting feature of Project for the Web is that it is built on the Power Platform. This makes it much easier to extend the functionality and integrate it with more of the Microsoft 365 products.
Who should use Project for the Web: Project for the web is still considered a light-weight PPM tool. It would be best utilized by Team Leads and Project Managers looking to manage tasks and provide visibility at the project and portfolio level.
Project Online
Microsoft’s Project Online solution is built on SharePoint and is part of Microsoft 365. Project Online gives PMO’s full Project and Portfolio capabilities for planning, prioritizing, and managing projects and project portfolio investments.
Project Online gives PMO’s the tools for:
- Schedule Management
- Resource Management
- Demand and Capacity
- Timesheets
- Reporting
Who should use Project Online: Project Managers, Resource Managers, all members of the enterprise PMO
Microsoft Teams Integration
For full collaboration and visibility throughout the entire organization, all the above project plans can be integrated with Microsoft Teams. Integrating Microsoft Teams with Project makes it easy to manage, track, and collaborate on all aspects of a team’s project in one place.
If none of these Project Plans are exactly what you are looking for, Marque360 can customize any of these solutions to give your team what you need! For more information, email info@marque360.com.
