Two favorite Project reports, Online edition

Four years ago I published the 3 favorite Microsoft Project reports post. And for the second year in a row it’s the most visited post on TPC. By far! And with two thousand views already this year, I’m expecting another clear winner this year (runner up “About percent complete” is good for almost half that amount of views).

It’s difficult to recreate good “ever green” content, it’s clear that the article has everything people look for. Maybe it’s the list of actions required for a successful report in Microsoft Project. Or maybe it’s because the article describes 3 reports I like the best.

Save to say I wanted to create a follow up article. This time I’m expanding my view to the cloud. More specifically, the Microsoft project management cloud solutions.



Cloud solutions, as in plural

With Project Online we cover only part of the Project Management solutions Microsoft has to over. Solutions such as Planner, Roadmap and Project for the Web come to mind. There’s a nice introduction to the different tools on the following website by Microsoft. It gives you a rough estimation on when to use which solution. It doesn’t contain all solutions though and that’s a shame.

The new Project for the Web is missing for instance, and that’s a “big-small” thing to miss. big because it’s extensability options are amazing, small because it currently isn’t a full blown replacement for MS Project or Project Online by itself.

But let’s have a look at two of my favorite reports when it comes to the Microsoft online ecosystem.

A Power BI master template

This template is great, it contains connections with Project Online, Roadmap and Project for the Web. And it is managed on Git hub, so you are sure to see updates on the template in the future. Get a copy of the template here.

On The Project Corner YouTube channel I created a video that describes the template in a more detail:

In the video I made an error in connecting the Roadmap tables. The correct links can be found on Paul Mather’s excelent blog article, which also includes a nice Roadmap only Power BI template. Here’s the quick overview:

The roadmap entity connections for Power BI.

This report works best when you have all the sources covered, meaning Project for the Web, Roadmap and Project Online. Luckely you have access to all 3 with just a Project Online P3 or Project Online P5 license. Project for the Web and Roadmap come as an added service for anyone with an active license of the types mentioned.

One added requirement is that the organisation has allowed Power Apps and CDS. If that’s not active on your environment both Roadmap and P4W will give errors or won’t show up as an option. Want to quickly check to see if you have access? Head on over to https://Project.microsoft.com and see if you get anywhere past the initial loading screen :).

Ben Howards planner template

Just in case you missed my recent brush with YouTube and how much I like the video format compared to the blogging sfere here’s another YouTube video. This time it’s Ben himself (fellow MVP and good guy) explaining how to use the sixth (!) version of his planner Power BI template, that you can get a hold of by clicking here.

I think it’s great to see the different visualisations of the planner boards, and the option to skip between the different plans as well.

One major downside of Planner itself is that there’s no direct interface option. Meaning that you will have to export the plan’s on a regular basis to get a “portfolio” overview.

Final notes

Both reports in this article require a Power BI license and valid permissions to view the data you’re extracting. So make sure you have both the license and permissions or find the person in your organisation that has them.

I hope you liked this short article on my two favorite reports the online edition. If you have a report you like to share yourself please send me a message and I’ll consider putting that in the post with a short description.

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