Limitation Number Four: Capturing the Original Planned Duration Using this approach, the relationships among the sub-schedules become tenuous and if the files are being maintained in separate locations, the complexity of managing those relationships becomes difficult. This, of course, eliminates the advantage of having a single master schedule in the first place: the simultaneous integration of the work across the whole project. To overcome the security control limitations of MSP, we often find that the master schedule must be sub-divided into individual files that are managed separately. This security is essential in a shared user environment. P6 provides internal security functionality where specific features can be assigned to or removed from an individual user taking it a step further, these security settings can be adapted across multiple schedules. P6, however, is a relational database tool therefore, there are no issues with multiple users working on the same file, at the same time, in a shared environment.
Even within the server-based version, there are limitations that may result in unexpected changes to the project file when multiple users work on it at the same time. Unless you are using the server-based version of the software, MSP doesn’t allow multiple users to simultaneously work on a single project. Limitation Number Three: Lack of Security Function By contrast, P6 is a relational database tool, which allows for a greater number of activities to be inserted without conflict-changes to activities occur each time the “enter” key is pressed. This is partly because all MSP work is performed within the computer’s memory, where changes are only saved when you ask an operation to be performed. While MSP maintains the maximum number of activities the software can manage is up to 400,000, in practice most users find that anything more than 2,000-3,000 activities becomes unstable and the data tends to be unreliable in the stand-alone format. This creates an even larger issue within the system. Without this functionality in MSP, an expanded and more cumbersome schedule is required. In many instances, functional project schedules require a greater level of detail and need to account for the overlap of two activities by tying together both the start and finish to correctly represent the logic of how the work will be executed. There is also a limitation when creating logic ties in MSP where only one relationship is allowed between any two activities.
Limitation Number Two: Inadequate Logic Ties It disregards that some activities may have started or finished, and in some cases, shows the actual start or finish in the future, generating a flawed schedule. P6 considers every activity in the schedule when computing the critical path based on the “data date”, where MSP does not require a “data date” and instead uses the project start date. It also does not follow the recognized CPM calculations. However, the absence of rules results in irregular schedules that do not pass integrity checks and cannot be accurately tracked and progressed.įor example, MSP allows logic ties to Summary Tasks (Level of Effort or LoE), which is not a good scheduling practice. To appeal to a non-scheduling user base, Microsoft removed scheduling rules from MSP to enable people with minimal scheduling experience to create spreadsheet-based schedules. Here, I try to provide a bit of support should you need to justify moving to a more robust scheduling tool, like P6, for a more complex project requiring a high level of detail. If you’re a P6 user, understanding the limits of MSP is very important for schedulers when an owner requires it for a contract. For large, complex projects, P6 is widely preferred due to its feature-rich capabilities. MSP is an adequate tool for some owners and smaller contractors and is used by various government organizations. Other than cost, what are the distinctions between these two scheduling software platforms? When assisting clients with scheduling efforts, we are often asked about the differences between a Microsoft Project (MSP) or Oracle’s Primavera P6 (P6) schedule. Project managers and new schedulers need to understand the differences between MS Project and Oracle P6, so the right tool is chosen for each project. Understanding the limits of Microsoft Project and identifying some of its major user issues is important in defending a move to a more equipped scheduling tool, like Oracle Primavera P6. MS Project vs Oracle Primavera: Understanding the Gaps and Functionality