Differences Between Primavera P6 and MS Project in planning

Oracle Primavera P6 and MS Project:

They are the most popular software for project planning, reporting, progress updating and tracking. Both the software are used worldwide and they have their own benefits.There are several differences between them. The following are the differences between Primavera Software and Microsoft Project 2010

Unique ID:

Microsoft Project, the first line is assigned ID 1, the second line ID 2 and so on. If you insert a new activity between 1 and 2, the new activity becomes ID 2. Thus an activity’s ID is determined by its position in relation to the others.

P6 is characterized by unique ID. For example, you can set the project to start from 1000 and increment by 10, so that the first activity entered will be assigned ID 1000, the second ID 1010 and so on. The activities keep their ID regardless of changes in position (unless you decide to physically change them).

If you are working in a big project and using activity ID system/ Identification then Microsoft Project will not be the correct choice.

Activity Sorting:

Under the group bands in P6, you can tell it how to sort the activities. Sorting by date order, sort by Activity ID or any other factor which make the sorting very durable and easy.

Microsoft Project offers a bit more discretionary control in that you can just move individual activities into the position you want them to appear.

Baselines

In MS Project only 11 baselines can be created. In Primavera unlimited baselines can be created.

Start and Finish Milestones

In Microsoft Project you can not define a milestone as either a Start or Finish milestone

Multiple User Access

MS Project doesn’t allow multiple users to work on a single project at the same time, Primvera 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.

Columns

Primavera P6 has many useful columns. It comes installed with over 200 columns, each giving you different information. Some column category to name include EVM, Budgeting, Costs, etc. On the other hand in MS Project, there are only around 40 columns.

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

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.

Benefit for MS Project that work breakdown structure is generally implemented through the use of summaries. You can create a new WBS level by indenting from the line above. This method allows you to create a system  in the same screen that you enter activities.

Which one You Should Learn Primavera P6 or MS Project?

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 Professional Project Management. Or if you are working on a single project that doesn’t require you record details other than activity schedule, resource list, and assignment details, use MS Project as it is simpler