Microsoft 365 Project Management Software: The Options
What Microsoft 365 offers for project management - Planner, Project, the Power Platform and full PPM - and how to choose the right level for your team.
PMO KNOWLEDGE HUB
Trish Malone
7/27/20261 min read
Microsoft 365 project management software: the options
If you run on Microsoft 365, you already have several project management options built in or close to hand. Match the level to what you need, from simple team planning up to full portfolio management. Here is how they compare.
Team-level: Planner, To Do and Project for the web
For task lists and simple team planning, Planner (which now brings together Project for the web, Planner and To Do) is included and easy to adopt. It is good for coordinating work inside a team, but light on portfolio governance, custom process and reporting.
Scheduling: Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project (desktop) remains the tool of choice for detailed schedules and dependencies on individual projects. It is a planning tool for project managers, not a shared PMO platform.
Custom and portfolio: the Power Platform
Where teams need portfolio governance, custom process and proper reporting inside their own Microsoft 365 tenant, the Power Platform (Dataverse, Power Apps, Power Automate and Power BI) is the foundation. This is where a full PPM solution is built - Microsoft-native, and hosted in your own environment.
When you need a PPM layer
If you are managing a portfolio rather than a handful of projects - prioritising, governing gates, tracking benefits and reporting to leadership - the team tools stop being enough. That is the point at which a Power Platform PPM solution earns its place.
Choosing
Match the tool to the job: Planner for team coordination, Project for detailed scheduling, and a Power Platform PPM for portfolio governance and reporting. Many organisations use more than one, with the PPM layer tying it together.
See it in practice
NextGen PPM helps teams put this into practice on a Microsoft-native PPM in their own tenant. If it is useful to see, book a demo.