MS Project vs. Primavera

D

DMChesser

I’m an IT Project Manager with a company that designs and constructs large
plants (more than a year in duration), and I’m looking for some MS Project
expertise. I’m a moderately accomplished user of MS Project, and I’m looking
for a bit of a comparative analysis: Project vs. Primavera.

We’re looking at enhancing or expanding our project management software;
we’ve been using MS Project in a limited capacity, and the PM group was
recently given a sales presentation on the wonders of Primavera.

Personally, I think we under-use MS Project, and my gut tells me we’d be
wasting money by moving to something new. I’d like to get a similar sales
presentation on the wonders of MS Project from someone at MS, but I’m not
really sure where to look to find that kind of resource.

Any suggestions?
 
P

ProjectUser

My advice, don't go with Primavera. There is a HUGE learning curve that will
take place. I've used both products in an IT environment and found that MS
Project is just fine. As you stated, your organization is probably
underutilizing Project. So, my guess is that they'll under utilize
Primavera.

Primavera is not intuitive and I think users will become easily frustrated
with the tool. I'm not saying it's not a great tool, it certainly is. But
so is Project. They both do the same thinks, but differently, in my opinion.
 
C

csnayak07

Hi dear ,

I am from Astrowix Project Management solutions. Astrowix provides
range of services on project management . Here I found you're interested
in Microsoft project 2007. It will be pleasure for us , if you invite
our sales team for presentation for Microsoft project 2007.for further
queries contact me

(e-mail address removed)
mobile no.09711053890
 
M

marksnape

I have been a scheduler for 17 years and have long had to suffer claim
by inexperienced schedulers that MS Project can do whatever Primavera
Open Plan or Artemis can do. To me, Ms Project is like scheduling in
spreadsheet. It does not force the user to have a WBS around which t
structure the schedule. Just create 2 activities and indent one an
there you have a WBS in MS Project. In a huge project al lit takes i
for someone to indent or outdent one of the summary bars and the whol
WBS is screwed up.

The problem with MS Project is that because it is cheap anybody wh
touches a schedule can have it on their desktop. Companies see that a
an advantage but really it is not. What happens is too many people in a
organization lay claims to being experienced schedulers because they us
MS Project. MS Project merely allows inexperienced schedulers to develo
bad scheduling practices.

MS Project is very weak when it comes to analyzing lots of data. Fo
example grouping and sorting datga in MS Project is very limited. Als
MS Project does not really have a reporting feature.I have a larg
amount of experience in defense and construction and have used Ope
Plan, Artemis and Primavera - al lof which in my opinion provide grea
scheduling software. I have never bee na fan of Microsoft Project an
would never be my tool of choic
 
M

marksnape

Not sure I understand the question... I am trying to get a feel fro
industry as a whole as to why MS Project is held in such high esteem
 
J

Jack Dahlgren

marksnape said:
I have been a scheduler for 17 years and have long had to suffer claims
by inexperienced schedulers that MS Project can do whatever Primavera,
Open Plan or Artemis can do. To me, Ms Project is like scheduling in a
spreadsheet. It does not force the user to have a WBS around which to
structure the schedule. Just create 2 activities and indent one and
there you have a WBS in MS Project. In a huge project al lit takes is
for someone to indent or outdent one of the summary bars and the whole
WBS is screwed up.

The problem with MS Project is that because it is cheap anybody who
touches a schedule can have it on their desktop. Companies see that as
an advantage but really it is not. What happens is too many people in an
organization lay claims to being experienced schedulers because they use
MS Project. MS Project merely allows inexperienced schedulers to develop
bad scheduling practices.

MS Project is very weak when it comes to analyzing lots of data. For
example grouping and sorting datga in MS Project is very limited. Also
MS Project does not really have a reporting feature.I have a large
amount of experience in defense and construction and have used Open
Plan, Artemis and Primavera - al lof which in my opinion provide great
scheduling software. I have never bee na fan of Microsoft Project and
would never be my tool of choice
Click to expand...

Marksnape,

I'm afraid your claims about Project are as uninformed as those which you
are hearing from inexperienced schedulers. I've used both in professional
capacities and I think they both have different strengths and weaknesses. The
reporting out of Project is much improved with the latest version (2007).

Whether people claim to be expert or not is not a function of the tool. I've
seen people who claimed to be P3 experts who couldn't schedule breakfast. As
you certainly know, experience and understanding of the work are key to
building a useful schedule model. Neither of those are changed by adopting a
particular tool.
 
J

Jack Dahlgren

marksnape said:
Not sure I understand the question... I am trying to get a feel from
industry as a whole as to why MS Project is held in such high esteem.
Click to expand...

A couple of things...

I don't think there is an "industry as a whole" and I don't think that
Project is "held in such high esteem".

You certainly don't esteem it. And a user forum focused on solving user's
problems is not going to give insight into what Project does well. It will
only give half the story - as most questions or problems point out the
negative side of the tool. No one posts here unless they have an issue so
there is no way of telling how many people don't have issues just by looking
here.

I guess that is Mike's point. If you are not a project user, you don't have
much to gain by reading or posting here, except to get an idea of some
typical issues.

-Jack Dahlgren
 
D

Dave

marksnape said:
I have been a scheduler for 17 years and have long had to suffer claims
by inexperienced schedulers that MS Project can do whatever Primavera,
Open Plan or Artemis can do. To me, Ms Project is like scheduling in a
spreadsheet. It does not force the user to have a WBS around which to
structure the schedule. Just create 2 activities and indent one and
there you have a WBS in MS Project. In a huge project al lit takes is
for someone to indent or outdent one of the summary bars and the whole
WBS is screwed up.

The problem with MS Project is that because it is cheap anybody who
touches a schedule can have it on their desktop. Companies see that as
an advantage but really it is not. What happens is too many people in an
organization lay claims to being experienced schedulers because they use
MS Project. MS Project merely allows inexperienced schedulers to develop
bad scheduling practices.

MS Project is very weak when it comes to analyzing lots of data. For
example grouping and sorting datga in MS Project is very limited. Also
MS Project does not really have a reporting feature.I have a large
amount of experience in defense and construction and have used Open
Plan, Artemis and Primavera - al lof which in my opinion provide great
scheduling software. I have never bee na fan of Microsoft Project and
would never be my tool of choice
Click to expand...

There are many hundreds of thousands of users of Project world wide.
They use the tool on real projects which have real importance to their
businesses and whose success or otherwise will have a tangible financial
impact.

It can't be that bad then can it?

If there was something which made better business sense, then they would
use it wouldn't they?

I know very few users of Project who can use it well. There is no
reason to suppose that they would fare any better with a different
application. The main problems of poor usage don't actually come down
to the tool. They come down to a poor understanding of the project
management discipline itself.
 
V

vanita

Hi

I have used both the software professionally and also train executives for
both the software. I agree wih others that both the software have their own
strengths and weaknesses. One thing in favour of MSP is definitely its
flexibility for customisation and effective data interface with Excel.

Construction industry is the one which has very large infrastruture
projects, but then majority of its projects are also small to medium size and
being dealt by SMEs. For them it is difficult to use Primavera which is
relatievly a complicated software and requires lot of details, like you
mentioned structuring the WBS. On such projects MSP is easy to handle and
use. I have seen building projects where the management was fixed on using
Primavera, but ultimately finished the project without scheduling with any of
the two software.

Other industries like software industry in any case do not have a
requiremnet to use Primavera.

So, both the software have their own requirement in different types of
projects and no point puttingone down in comparison to the other.

Vanita
 
R

Rod Gill

I have been a scheduler for 40 years! I use MS Project almost exclusively.
Currently I'm helping schedule an extension to an Oil Refinery. The main
engineers use Primavera but we contractors happily all have Project. Project
2003 vs P6 and Project is doing more, faster and providing more relevant,
more useful and more readable reports (but part of that is my VBA macros
exporting reports to Excel). We have recently past our 1,000,000th hour of
work, so this is a reasonable sized project! There is nothing Project can't
do that we need for this project and for this project, thanks to Project VBA
there are things Project can do but Primavera can't.

For example we have trackers in Excel to report progress in the shop for
Pipe fabrication and trackers for teams on site to report pipe installation
progress. Using Pipe numbers Project can update progress at a pipe level
(through VBA) even though the tracker works at drawing level (up to 20
drawings per pipe) and Project is mostly at Pipe level.

Primavera certainly has some advantages: a 50,000 task schedule with
multi-user access needed would probably benefit from Primavera! Refinery
sized projects and smaller: Project handles better in my experience.

3 more points:
1) Completely agree that ownership of a scheduling tool does not a good
scheduler make! But that applies to P6 as well.

2) WBS codes in Project are automatic, but if they are entered manually then
Project does not change them. Personally I have never used WBS, but if you
need them, enter them manually.

3) Using data in custom fields and Project's Grouping feature we daily
report on progress by discipline, site location, contractor, work pack and
more in exactly the same way P6 can.
--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

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

greatfargo1

I used Primavera and MS Project. However, I would recommend Asta Power
Project. It is comparable to Primavera in functionality and to MS
Project in easiness. It is the standard PM software in UK and other
countries all over the world. It is now available in the US with
support. You can visit (www.capmc.net) to see comparison between Asta
Power Project and MS Project & Primavera. Moreover, it is much cheaper
than Primavera.
It has multiple editions; single user, network (allows concurrent
users), and enterprise. Asta Power Project can customize the enterprise
edition for your company. They have a whole team for enterprise
support. (www.astadev.com)
 
D

Dave

greatfargo1 said:
I used Primavera and MS Project. However, I would recommend Asta Power
Project. It is comparable to Primavera in functionality and to MS
Project in easiness. It is the standard PM software in UK and other
countries all over the world.
Click to expand...

It most certainly is not.
 
D

Dave

greatfargo1 said:
Did you use Asta PowerProject before?
Click to expand...

That is wholly irrelevant to the point in question.

In the UK there are relatively few professional project managers who
have heard of Asta PowerProject.

It is therefore dishonest to claim that it is widely used, widely
respected or some form of standard.

Given the small user base that it has, it is certainly no sort of standard.
 
G

greatfargo1

I guess you can visit the Asta wb site and check the case studies. There
are a lot of case studies for big projects such as London Eye, and
Bishopsgate Tower that Asta PowerProject was used at. You can go there
and check the software features. I hate to attack a software without
studying it.
 

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