Primavera

Mike has recently developed a penchant for telling all and sundry why Primavera is worse than Asta, so I'm sure he'll jump in on this thread soon enough ;o)

Having used both (Asta only briefly), I would say there isn't a great deal of difference between them in terms of functionality. You'll know the processes and the theory, so it's really just a matter of working out where the appropriate buttons and menus are in Primavera vs Asta. Not too difficult -and primavera's help functions are unusually helpful.

As to free trials: I have no idea but if you can get one, I imaigine it will be from their website so go and have a look.

Hi Cathal

Gary is right - there is a great deal of difference in the use of P6 and Asta.

Have a look at some of the queries that are raised in PP in the P6 forum and you will get a taste of what you will face.

The first thing you will notice - if you do manage to get it installed and linked to the SQL or Oracle database - is that P6 is not intuitive and its main purpose is to create a link between mamanagent accounting reports and work progress - actual construction programming is a secondary function.

You will be hog tied to a WBS system whereas in Asta that is a take it or leave it option.

Other simple things that you will miss are putting different colours on tasks - underlining text in the columns - more than 1 task per bar - splitting bars - copy and paste between spreadsheets and columns - copy paste tasks or summaries between projects - curved vertical links - buffer tasks - set page breaks in printing - etc etc.

When I am faced with a P6 programme I simply open it up in Asta PowerProject and work on it and the send it back to P6 as an XER file.

So when you go to OZ - take Asta with you and convert them to the true path.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Hi Gary

Its not a recently developed penchant! Its my long standing and ongoing crusade to show planners that P6 is not necessarily the best tool in the box.

There are others out there such as Spider and Micro Planner.

I am currently in the process of showing my fellow planners in India that P6 is not the best software for pipelines.

Next it will be power stations.

Keep the faith.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Hi Guys,

I'm not going to comment on the pro's and con's of either as it really depends on the domain and context in which you are deploying these types of tools.

I will add that you can download Primavera from the Oracle edelivery site so you can check it out. Of course there are numerous versions, but if you want a standalone copy, then opt for Primavera P6 Professional. The link is here and registration is free https://edelivery.oracle.com/

I hope this helps,

Emily