Project Online Retirement
FAQs
Project Online Retirement & Transition
Microsoft’s Project Online retires on September 30, 2026. This section guides organizations through the transition, highlighting a shift to modern, AI-powered tools in the Power Platform for enhanced risk management, governance, and visibility.
Microsoft has officially announced that Project Online will retire on 30 September 2026. After this date, the service will no longer be available.
Microsoft is shifting its innovation efforts toward Planner, Copilot, and the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Project Online’s architecture is aging, and modern capabilities (especially AI-powered features) are being delivered through Microsoft’s newer platforms.
Project Online has long been used for:
- Enterprise-level project registers
- Governance workflows
- Portfolio reporting
- Resource management
- A central store for Microsoft Project (.mpp) schedules
These capabilities will need to be replaced before the retirement date.
Project Online users are well aware that their platform is aging. Common issues include:
- Outdated user experience
- Heavy dependency on Microsoft Project Desktop
- Poor collaboration
- Difficult reporting and automation
- No native AI or modern integrations
These limitations impact PMOs, executives, and delivery teams.
Most organisations follow a structured transition process:
- Assess the current Project Online environment
- Select a replacement PPM solution
- Migrate current data and archive historical data
- Convert project schedules
- Replace integrations
- Rebuild reports and dashboards
- Train users
- Retire the legacy system
Each step ensures the organisation retains critical information while improving how projects are managed.
If organisations do not plan ahead, they risk:
- Data loss or corruption during migration if fields and structures are not mapped correctly
- Loss of historical project and portfolio data needed for reporting or compliance
- Broken integrations with finance, HR, reporting, or document management systems
- Loss of functionality if the replacement system does not fully support existing features
- Project schedule compatibility issues, particularly with complex Microsoft Project plans
- Reporting disruption if dashboards and reports are not rebuilt in advance
- User adoption challenges as teams adjust to new tools and processes
- Security and permissions errors when replicating the existing access model
- Underestimating migration complexity, especially in environments with many customisations
- Temporary disruption to portfolio governance and reporting during the transition
Planning early helps avoid operational disruption.
Microsoft offers Project Server SE as a direct replacement, however Project Server is considered expensive and complex, requiring significant expertise to build and maintain infrastructure. It is also not cloud-based and does not fit with Microsoft’s cloud-first strategies, as it requires private infrastructure rather than Microsoft 365 cloud.
Alternatively, Microsoft offers Planner Premium as a modern, collaborative work management tool that can be extended through Power Apps to create PPM capabilities. However, Planner Premium cannot fully match the scheduling features for MS Project desktop, and solutions in the market built around Planner typically are quite basic.
Power Framework PPM as Project Online Replacement
Power Framework PPM is a Microsoft Power Platform-based solution replacing Project Online, covering the full project lifecycle with advanced AI, flexible scheduling across tools, rich portfolio features like financials and risks, seamless Power BI reporting, and native cloud integration for modern, hybrid workflows.
Power Framework PPM is a Microsoft Power Platform-based solution covering the full project lifecycle, including demand intake, delivery, portfolio, and program management, with advanced reporting and AI features.
Key Features:
- It was designed and developed by Power Framework – a specialist Microsoft Partner with 20 years’ experience of implementing Project Server and Project Online solutions.
- The solution was created specifically to offer a modernization platform for Project Online customers.
Power Framework PPM fully replaces Project Online’s core strengths — enterprise project registers, governance, resource management, scheduling, reporting — but it goes far beyond them.
Project Online was tightly bound to Microsoft Project and heavily reliant on SharePoint lists, making scheduling rigid, reporting complex, and collaboration disjointed.
By contrast, Power Framework PPM is built natively on the Microsoft Power Platform, giving every organisation a flexible, scalable, modern foundation for project, programme, and portfolio management.
It delivers true portfolio and programme layers, with:
- Rich financials
- Benefits management
- Risks management
- Capacity planning
- Modern roadmaps
— capabilities Project Online never offered.
Scheduling becomes tool-agnostic: teams can use:
- Microsoft Project
- Planner
- Jira
- DevOps
- Simple grids
…all connected through Dataverse and governed centrally.
Reporting transforms from OData wrestling to seamless Power BI dashboards embedded throughout the experience.
And unlike Project Online, Power Framework PPM is ready for how organisations work today: hybrid, agile, collaborative, cross-functional. Teams work directly in Teams, automation is handled through Power Automate rather than legacy workflows, and AI is woven into the fabric of the platform — from insights to automation to Copilot integration.
Staying on the Microsoft cloud isn’t just a technical preference — it means everything in your PPM ecosystem works together seamlessly.
With Power Framework, your:
- projects
- data
- reporting
- automation
- security
- identity
- AI
…all run natively on the same platform you already trust.
No new vendors, no integration headaches, no shadow IT.
You simply get a modern, future-proof PPM solution that works the way Microsoft works.
Migrating to Power Framework PPM
Power Framework PPM migration services include full end-to-end transfer of core project/portfolio data, MS Project schedules (via Planner Premium conversion, Schedule Hub, or direct connection), SharePoint risks/issues (to Dataverse), and documents (with structure/metadata preserved).
Selective migration of recent projects with historical archiving is supported, ensuring data integrity through assessment, mapping, testing, and validation—all managed by their team for minimal client effort and low disruption.
We provide a complete migration service to help organisations move away from Microsoft Project Online to Power Framework PPM, our modern project and portfolio management platform.
Our service covers the migration of:
- Core project and portfolio data
- Microsoft Project schedules
- Risks and issues stored in SharePoint lists
- Project documents in SharePoint
We manage the entire migration process end-to-end, ensuring a smooth transition with minimal disruption.
Yes. We can migrate schedules created in Microsoft Project.
Depending on the target solution, we can:
- Convert and migrate schedules directly into Planner Premium format (with some data loss)
- Maintain schedules for continued use in Microsoft Project (utilising Power Framework’s Schedule Hub for MS Project)
- Connect schedules with the new project management platform
We ensure key schedule data such as tasks, dependencies, and milestones are preserved.
Project Online stores risks and issues in SharePoint lists.
During migration we:
- Extract risks and issues from SharePoint lists
- Transform them into structured records
- Import them into Dataverse tables within the new solution
This allows risks and issues to be managed in a modern, structured data platform.
Yes. We migrate project documentation from existing SharePoint sites to new project SharePoint sites created for the new solution.
The migration includes:
- Project files and documents
- Folder structures
- Relevant metadata where required
This ensures that teams retain access to all project documentation after migration.
Yes, this is a common request driven by the desire to not populate the new PPM tool with ancient project data that is no longer accessed or reported on.
Current projects can be migrated selectively, and historical projects with all their content archived to separate containers. For example, a dedicated SharePoint archive site collection would be created and populated with archived project sites.
We follow a structured migration process that includes:
- Discovery and assessment of the existing environment
- Data mapping and transformation
- Test migrations
- Validation with project stakeholders
This ensures that the migrated data is complete, accurate, and usable.
No. Our team manages the entire migration process, including:
- Data extraction
- Transformation and mapping
- Schedule migration
- SharePoint content migration
- Data validation
Your organisation simply reviews and validates the migrated data.
Using our migration service provides:
- A complete end-to-end migration approach
- Preservation of critical project information
- Reduced migration risk
- Faster transition to the new platform
- Minimal impact on project teams
Our goal is to make the move away from Project Online simple, predictable, and fully managed.
Security & Compliance
Power Framework securely stores your data in your Microsoft 365 tenant with enterprise-grade security, configurable role-based access controls, and key compliance certifications including ISO 27001, ISO 9001, Cyber Essentials, and G-Cloud.
Our solutions also provide full support for U.S. defense and public sector requirements such as Microsoft 365 GCC High, DoD IL4/IL5, NIST SP 800-53, ITAR, and CUI.
Visit our Security page to learn more.
All data is stored within your organization’s Microsoft 365 environment, leveraging existing security, compliance, and authentication mechanisms. User access is managed through Microsoft 365 accounts, with configurable roles and permissions.
Yes, security roles can be defined to restrict access to risks by business unit, department, or other criteria, ensuring users only see and manage relevant risks.
Power Framework holds key certifications that demonstrate our commitment to quality, information security, and cybersecurity best practices — making us a trusted partner for public sector and regulated organizations.
We are an approved G-Cloud Supplier on the UK Government’s G-Cloud framework, enabling fast, compliant procurement of our PPM, RISK, and Planner solutions.
We are certified to:
- ISO/IEC 27001 — Information Security Management
- ISO 9001 — Quality Management
- Cyber Essentials — confirming robust protection against common cyber threats
Additionally, for US Customers in the defense and public sector, our solutions are compliant with Microsoft 365 GCC High and DoD environments, which meet:
- NIST SP 800-53 controls at FIPS 199 High Categorization
- DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG) Impact Level 4 (IL4) equivalency (GCC High) and IL5 (DoD environment)
- Requirements for DFARS, ITAR, and CUI protection
Combined with our unique model—your data stays securely in your own Microsoft cloud tenant. This provides enterprise-grade assurance while keeping things straightforward and collaborative.
Ready to transition from Project Online before it retires?
Don’t delay—Project Online retires September 30, 2026. Switch to Power Framework PPM for AI-driven tools, flexible scheduling, portfolio management, and seamless migration.