User:Ev2geny/draft article on Project Scheduling Software Comparison
The following is a comparison of project planning features of the project management software.
Features comparison
[edit]| 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 |
Definitions of some of the features and feature-related notes
[edit]STRUCTURES
[edit]Multiple breakdown structures
[edit]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
[edit]Separation of quantity from workload
[edit]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
[edit]- ^ Requires usage of Microsoft Project Server
Primavera P6 Notes
[edit]- ^ cost accounts but not cost components, impossible to define that resource cost consists of salary, taxes, indirect costs etc
Spider Project Notes
[edit]- ^ Unlimited amount of Portfolio- Work- and Resource- Breakdown structures for
- ^ In Spider resources of the same skill may have different productivities, automatic resource assignments based on skills and availability
- ^ Working calendars take into account both activity and resource calendars
- ^ With the simulation of material supply or production
- ^ With the simulation of project financing and income
- ^ Using consolidate/redistribute feature of the portfolio via FTP or network drives. Does not require server