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User:Ev2geny/draft article on Project Scheduling Software Comparison

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The following is a comparison of project planning features of the project management software.

Features comparison

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Features group Feature Microsoft Project Professional Primavera Project Management P6 Spider Project Professional
STRUCTURES Portfolio Breakdown Structure Yes Yes Yes
Work Breakdown Structure Yes Yes Yes
Resource Breakdown Structure Yes Yes Yes
Cost Breakdown Structure No Yes Yes
Multiple breakdown structures No ? Yes[SP 1]
ACTIVITY TYPES Duration Yes Yes Yes
Effort Yes Yes Yes
Volume (physical) No No Yes
Hammock (LOE) Yes[1] Yes Yes
Milestone Yes Yes Yes
RESOURCE TYPES Labor Yes Yes Yes
Material Yes Yes Yes
Production No No Yes
Skills No No Yes[SP 2]
Multi-Resources (crews) No No Yes
Activity Links Standard 4 types (FS, SS, FF, SF) Yes Yes Yes
Time Lags Yes Yes Yes
Volume Lags No No Yes
Strict Links No No Yes
Multiple Links No Yes Yes
Table with links available to user No ? Yes
Reference to activities in successor / predecessor columns By activity row ID By activity code By activity code
RESOURCE ASSIGNMENTS Individual Yes Yes Yes
Multi-Resources No No Yes
Independent teams (Shifts) No No Yes
Partial Workload Yes Yes Yes
Separation of quantity from workload No No Yes
Predefined Workload Profile Yes Yes No
Automatic Workload Profile Adjustment No No Yes
Material Consumption Yes Yes Yes
Material Production No No Yes
Materials consumed by Resources No No Yes
COSTS Cost Components No Yes[P6 1] Yes
Activity Cost Yes Yes Yes
Resource Hour Cost Yes Yes Yes
Material Unit Cost Yes Yes Yes
Planned Overload Cost No No Yes
Assignment Cost (Payment per Work) No No Yes
Income simulation No No Yes
Multi Currency No No Yes
CALENDARS Activity Calendars Yes Yes Yes[SP 3]
Resource Calendars Yes Yes Yes
Dependency Calendars No No Yes
SCHEDULING Without Resource Constraints Yes Yes Yes
Standard Priorities Yes Yes Yes
Custom Priorities No Yes Yes
Resource leveling Yes Yes Yes
Schedule Stability Tools No No Yes
Scheduling with Supply Restrictions No No Yes[SP 4]
Scheduling with Financial Restrictions No No Yes [SP 5]
Backward Scheduling Yes Yes Yes
Resource Critical Path (Critical Chain) No No Yes
Resource-Constrained Floats No No Yes
DRAG calculation No No Yes
RISK PLANNING Risk Simulation No No Yes
Probability To Meet Project Targets (Cost, Finish) No No Yes
Calculation of Necessary Contingency Reserves No No Yes
MONITORING AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT Duration Monitoring Yes Yes Yes
Resource Monitoring Yes Yes Yes
Volume Monitoring No No Yes
Supply Monitoring No No Yes
Cost and Income Monitoring No No Yes
Project Archives No No Yes
Reports for User Defined Periods No No Yes
Earned Value Management (EVM) Yes Yes Yes
Trends of any Project Parameters No No Yes
Trends of EVM Parameters No No Yes
Success Probability Trends No No Yes
Deviations from the Baseline Yes Yes Yes
Deviations by User Defined Period No No Yes
PROJECT PORTFOLIO Portfolio Scheduling and Leveling No Yes Yes
Project Priorities Yes Yes Yes
Portfolio Budget Yes Yes Yes
Portfolio Budget by Cost Components and Centers No No Yes
Portfolio Cash Flow Including Profits Yes Yes Yes
MULTIUSER USAGE IN DISTRIBUTED ENVIRONMENT Parallel work on multiple projects of portfolio Yes[MSP 1] Yes Yes[SP 6]
LIMITATIONS Maximum number of baselines 10 ? unlimited
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STRUCTURES

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Multiple breakdown structures
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Multiple breakdown structures allow presenting the same information from different view. E.g. in case of WBS, activities can be grouped by product, person responsible & technological process.

Resource Assignments

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Separation of quantity from workload
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In case a resource is assigned to activity this feature would allow to distinguish between the workload and the quantity of the resource. E.g. it would allow to distinguish between 2 resources assigned 150% each and 3 resources assigned 100% each.

Microsoft Project Notes

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  1. ^ Requires usage of Microsoft Project Server

Primavera P6 Notes

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  1. ^ cost accounts but not cost components, impossible to define that resource cost consists of salary, taxes, indirect costs etc


Spider Project Notes

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  1. ^ Unlimited amount of Portfolio- Work- and Resource- Breakdown structures for
  2. ^ In Spider resources of the same skill may have different productivities, automatic resource assignments based on skills and availability
  3. ^ Working calendars take into account both activity and resource calendars
  4. ^ With the simulation of material supply or production
  5. ^ With the simulation of project financing and income
  6. ^ Using consolidate/redistribute feature of the portfolio via FTP or network drives. Does not require server
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "SpiderParWorkLoad" is not used in the content (see the help page).

References

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