ms project 3

[cesarbaq]

What are the most basic advantages between Primavera and Ms Project?
I am asking this because I might be thinking in changing myself to ms project becasue of the high costs of maintaining primavera (upgrades)

Any comments or thoughts?

Thanks,

Cesar Baquerizo

http://www.conbaquerizo.com

Guayaquil, Ecuador

 

[HanP]

1. Only single relations between 2 act's, so no SS/FF possible in MSP.
2. No S-curves or complex Histograms in MSP.
3. Early/Late calculations not present in MSP.
4. Only one baseline(target) in MSP, 2 in P3.
5. Exchange with MS-Office products is better in MSP.
6. Microsoft look-and feel and use of macros is an advantage to MSP.
7. Better use and more codes in MSP than P3.
8. Probably more developments for MSP than P3.
9. Percentage relations in MSP, not possible in P3.
10. Outline / structure options in MSP better than P3.

Only 10 .. there are more. Hope this will help

 

[ploegaerts]

why not check out Primavera Suretrak

Guy

 

[taguinod]

You shouldn't compare P3 and MSP feature by feature. P3 is developed to handle large complex projects. This means more analysis reports, collaboration, multi-user handling, security, cost accounts, etc.

If you're doing simple projects, then maybe you should look at SureTrak. If you're doing complex projects, forget MSP. It's so useless in really managing complex projects.

 

[thien2002]

I completely agree, shouldn't compare between the 2 software, MS & P, what I recommend you to do is to take a course in Primavera which offer around construction management school. Primavera is recommended for a large project for its detailed planning execution.

 

[gramya]

How to procure a Primavera Suretrack? Seems interesting as we are also in the same dilema whether to go for MS Project or Primavera software licensing. Price factor was a pinch to us aswell. Will any reseller guide us?

Narendra K. Roy
Gramya Research Analysis Institute,
PO box 4016, Vadodara 390015, India
Website:

http://www.gramya.com

;

http://www.charismaglobal.com

 

[megs]

Hi,
Try to visit.

http://www.primavera.com.

im sure you can learn something about primavera.

 

[gaultz]

FYI, Suretrak costs less than MSP. You can check out the cost by searching Google. Also, Primavera has resellers all over the globe. You can try looking up "Primavera Authorized Representatives" in

http://www.primavera.com

Best,
gaultz

 

[JPatten]

Another benefit to suretrak is that you can upload into P3 if you ever had the need.

We used MSP for an outage once about 5-years ago and we had a real hard time tracking progress correctly. I can't remember exactly but it used the resources to calculate your remaining duration and it would do funky things. My memory is not what it used to be so I can't remember exaclty what was going on but we never seemed to have the same problem with P3.

 

[Verner]

I am checking out this thread because I am now going through my second run of converting a large schedule (greater than 3000 lines) from MS Project into Primavera which is costing us a great deal of money and will take a good month or so to get our schedule to a state that is functional. Judge which program you choose to use on the scope of the project. If you anticipate your schedule will be large and involve a lot of tracking, resource allocations,.... I would recommend Primavera, if you are doing a small project for a scoping study or something like building a house or personal home projects, use Project.

 

[harz2000]

for non-complex schedules consider primavera´s suretrak.. cheaper than primavera project planner and quite good

i am a user of project and primavera project planner but not have an in-depth knowledge

regards,
javier fernandez (Spain)

 

[DavidPM]

It seems to be a total myth that Premavera is the real Project Managers tool and MSP is a toy. The only differance is that one cost a lot more than the other and MSP is much easier to use. Shell Global moved away from Primavera and now use MSP as well as many other construction companies. Before making a choice have a look at Project Pro 2003 with Project Server it's ver y good and very cost effective.

 

[planetant]

I love this thread!

Anyone able to compare the dif in how MSP vs P track cost based on assets and deliverables. I work in Media and Mail Advertising campaigns.

Must optimize Project for this or find a better tool.

Any thoughts?

 

[Gavino]

So, I'm a few years late, but had to challenge HanP's post because it appears first on google. I've been using MSP since it came out and Prima Vera since 1997. I've included a few jpgs to illustrate my points.

"1. Only single relations between 2 act's, so no SS/FF possible in MSP."
Simply not, and never has been, the case. Unlimited relations and all types are supported.

http://img94.echo.cx/my.php?image=msprelations5ne.jpg

"2. No S-curves or complex Histograms in MSP."
There are S-curves but they are rubbish. Complex histograms also not possible.

"3. Early/Late calculations not present in MSP."
Not the case. MSP has always been a PERT based program.

http://img228.echo.cx/my.php?image=mspbaselines6sd.jpg

"4. Only one baseline(target) in MSP, 2 in P3."
Not the case. There are in fact 10 baselines in MSP, and you can define more using the customisable date fields.

http://img217.echo.cx/my.php?image=mspnetcalcs0ty.jpg

"5. Exchange with MS-Office products is better in MSP."
True.

"6. Microsoft look-and feel and use of macros is an advantage to MSP."
Visual Basic is even better. Interface compliant design in MSP is also a bonus.

"7. Better use and more codes in MSP than P3."
True.

"8. Probably more developments for MSP than P3."
Very true. 2003 pro is the first planning package I've used in 10 years that feels like an imrovement over Open Plan's functionality. Project 98 is perfectly functional though.

"9. Percentage relations in MSP, not possible in P3."
Yes, they are.

"10. Outline / structure options in MSP better than P3."
True.

Some other differences.
P3 can't handle cost assignments above a certain number of millions, a real pig to handle if you are using Roubles or other low denom currencies.

P3's output is superb, though fiddly and sometimes unflexible.

I have never managed to get p3 to handle documents including both cyrillic and latin text. MSP does it without any differentiation.

Project 2004 Pro will read straight from your Ms Access (or SQL) databases. This is a big deal if you are running a CTR or Jobcard system.