30 September 2026, that is the day that all Project Online Services stop working. Microsoft anounced this date today in their official blog article. Let’s take a moment and discuss what this means for organizations that work with the product today.
So, that’s two solutions that retire in a short timespan. Granted, Project for the web is just a name changes and some features aren’t available. Where Project Online is really going AWAY.
What will happen?
The situation is quite strickt, after the 30th of September 2026 (which is a Wednesday btw), Project Online will not be available anymore. That means that none of your projects, resources, reports, risks, issues, status updates, templates, etc will be available anymore after that date.
That gives us roughly 12 months to prepare for the inevitable move to a new and different application for our Project and Portfolio Management needs.
What are my options?
A non Microsoft third party alternative
As a fan of the Microsoft ecosystem, I haven’t ever really worked with application such as Primavera P6 or other likeminded solutions. And, because this is a Microsoft first blog, I won’t go into much more detail on any non Microsoft solutions. However, it would be incorrect to say that there aren’t any alternatives available outside the Microsoft world.
A Project Server alternative
Microsoft states in their article that they will continue support for the “Project Server Subscribtion Edition” till at least 2031.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/project/enterprise-project-server
Although I don’t have detailed information about this Server solution, a key consideration here is that it is again an on-premises solution. Where most servers are moving to the cloud, it would be strange to again rely on on-premises hardware/software.
Would your IT department be able to facilitate server upgrades and Cumulative Updates again after relying on SharePoint and Project Online taking care of that part for so long?
There’s a big learning curve for the internal IT department in that way. But apart form that, the Project Server subscribtion sounds like the closest solution when it comes to parity of features.
A Planner Premium alternative
Microsoft launched Project for the web in October of 2019, and retired the name (and some features) earlier this year. I covered this in this video:
In the article, Microsoft mentioned Planner Premium to be the natural migration path for current users of Project Online.
And while that may be true to some light weight users of the Project Online solution. Advanced users will have already assessed that features that they know and loved aren’t available (yet) in Planner Premium. A few I’ll mention here:
- no robust security role configuration
- no 11 baselines
- no enterprise resource pool
- no enterprise custom fields and views
- no Earned Value Management
- No custom templates
Planner Premium does have it’s extensibility into the Power Platform. And is a modern solution with AI embedded into the solution and a user friendly interface.
So, Planner Premium will be the path for you only: if your users aren’t put off by the limiting capabilities of Planner Premium, and if you are not expecting to use any of the advanced features anytime soon.
A Power Platform and Azure alternative
This is my favorite alternative. Yes, of course because we at Projectum have build such a solution, and I’m not alone in stating that this is a great solution to work with. You can read about the Projectum success cases on the website.
When Project Online’s decline was first anounced, now already years ago, we took a plundge and moved our whole organization into the direction of building a Model Driven Power App. We call our solution “Projectum xPM” where the x stands for “anything” Portfolio Management. We took this approach because the world needs a more flexible solution than what Project Online provided.
We now have access to the complete flexibility of Microsoft’s Power Platform, which includes Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Copilot Studio and more.
And we are using Azure to build quick and scalable solutions for Timesheeting, Resource Management, Enterprise reporting, among other things.
Projectum, and many of our partners have a long track record working with the Microsoft solutions. We have also done multiple successful Project Online to Projectum xPM migrations.
If you are curious, reach out to any of our team and let’s talk about your options.
How do I prepare?
Regardless of the path you choose, there are a number of steps you can consider. I’ve had help from ChatGPT for this section, so please excuse my “AI-ness” on this part. I did review the text before posting it here, so I do agree with the tasks at hand.
1. Data and Information Architecture
- Project Data: Decide which projects, tasks, resources, and timesheet data need to be preserved, archived, or discarded.
- Historical Data: Determine if historical reporting data should be migrated to a data warehouse, exported to Excel/Power BI, or archived as read-only.
- Custom Fields & Enterprise Templates: Document all enterprise custom fields, calendars, and templates that are currently in use.
- Permissions & Security Groups: Export and document existing security model and RBS (Resource Breakdown Structure).
2. Integrations and Dependencies
- Connected Systems: Identify integrations with ERP, HR, time-tracking, or reporting systems.
- Workflows: Review if Project Online was driving workflows (e.g., approvals) and plan how to replace or retire them.
- Reporting: Audit Power BI datasets, OData connections, or custom reports pulling from Project Online.
3. Technical Considerations
- OData Retirement: Project Online OData feeds are deprecated—if your reporting relies on them, you’ll need to redesign connections.
- Add-ins / Custom Solutions: Identify any custom CSOM/JSOM solutions, add-ins, or third-party products tied to Project Online.
- Storage & Performance: Review where project artifacts (documents, risks, issues) are stored—often in connected SharePoint sites.
4. Governance and Compliance
- Retention Policies: Define how long project and timesheet data must be kept for compliance.
- Audit Trails: Confirm whether you need audit logs and export them before decommissioning.
- Licensing Impact: Re-evaluate Office 365/Project licenses tied to Project Online users.
5. Change Management and Communication
- Stakeholder Analysis: Map out which business units rely on Project Online and how they use it.
- User Training: Even if the new solution isn’t decided, plan communications around what is changing, timelines, and where users should go for historical data.
- Parallel Run: Consider running Project Online in a read-only mode for a period after migration.
6. Decommissioning Strategy
- Phased Retirement: Define a phased approach—new projects stop in Project Online while existing ones are closed out.
- Data Archive: Ensure you have an accessible, compliant archive of past projects.
- Final Shutdown: Plan for license revocation, data extraction, and communication of the official shutdown date [again, latest of 30 September next year!].
(here’s Erik again, thanks for sticking around)
That’s a lot of work, and a short timespan to do these actions, and not even move to another solution.
So, get of your seat, run to your manager, gather your team, be a Project Manager, plan for a move TODAY.
Final notes
Jokes aside on the last part of course. I hope you enjoyed this article, it is for sure a very interesting time we face the next 12 months.
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