Problems coverting Microsoft Project schedule to P3
In the Open Standard
Swapna BoinpallyMember for 19 years 3 months
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I have to convert a MS project schedule to P3.
These are the steps I have taken.
1.Convert MPP to MPX and then to P3.
2.Copy the new schedule and change planning unit from hours to days.I used gloabal change to change OD and RD to days. However this did not work for all the activities.Morever I could not use this methid to change lag. So I imported out data from both MSP and P3 to excel, then formatted the MSP data to import back to P3. I imported the OD,RD,EF,ES, AF,AS,LF,LS as well as calendars(4 different ones used in MSP), and lags(all in days).
3. I then matched up the calendars,changed the activities that were split/suspended in MSP(I used the resume and stop dates).
4. P3 would not accept some of the relationship logic from MSP, for example FF relationships with milestones. I changed these to FS.
5. However once I reschedule it with the status date from MSP, the schedule goes haywire. Durations changed, and Total floats were not the same.
6. I then changed resource driven activities, so they wouldn’t be affected by that logic(for some reason although they were resource driven in MSP too, MSp was not considering them as being resource driven while P3 was??)
However this still did not help.
7. I then tried tracing back on the each critical path that showed up and corrected the early start and early finish dates going from each activity to its successors as well as went back from the last activity on the critical path backward on its predecessor to correct the late start and late finish. This would however not work because of the multiple longest paths that were being driven by some of the activities in the critical path. I next tried to correct these simultaneously. However while this seems to work, it just results in the critical path shifting to another set of activities, but not to the one from MSP.
8.Also, because of the slight variation in durations(+/- 1 day) from converting hours to days, the critical paths are off by a few days, especially when durations cross weekends. This is also changing the total floats. But this should not be as drastic as I have it right now.
I still do not get a schedule similar to the one in MSP!!!
I can’t help wondering if there is something important I am missing here? Can someone please help?
These are the steps I have taken.
1.Convert MPP to MPX and then to P3.
2.Copy the new schedule and change planning unit from hours to days.I used gloabal change to change OD and RD to days. However this did not work for all the activities.Morever I could not use this methid to change lag. So I imported out data from both MSP and P3 to excel, then formatted the MSP data to import back to P3. I imported the OD,RD,EF,ES, AF,AS,LF,LS as well as calendars(4 different ones used in MSP), and lags(all in days).
3. I then matched up the calendars,changed the activities that were split/suspended in MSP(I used the resume and stop dates).
4. P3 would not accept some of the relationship logic from MSP, for example FF relationships with milestones. I changed these to FS.
5. However once I reschedule it with the status date from MSP, the schedule goes haywire. Durations changed, and Total floats were not the same.
6. I then changed resource driven activities, so they wouldn’t be affected by that logic(for some reason although they were resource driven in MSP too, MSp was not considering them as being resource driven while P3 was??)
However this still did not help.
7. I then tried tracing back on the each critical path that showed up and corrected the early start and early finish dates going from each activity to its successors as well as went back from the last activity on the critical path backward on its predecessor to correct the late start and late finish. This would however not work because of the multiple longest paths that were being driven by some of the activities in the critical path. I next tried to correct these simultaneously. However while this seems to work, it just results in the critical path shifting to another set of activities, but not to the one from MSP.
8.Also, because of the slight variation in durations(+/- 1 day) from converting hours to days, the critical paths are off by a few days, especially when durations cross weekends. This is also changing the total floats. But this should not be as drastic as I have it right now.
I still do not get a schedule similar to the one in MSP!!!
I can’t help wondering if there is something important I am missing here? Can someone please help?
9 replies
Oldest first- 0Dieter Wambach ·Swapna,
MPX format reflects a status of scheduling about 20 years ago. I suppose, you used some features in MSP which are not covered by MPX.
If you have P3e/P5 as well. there is a much simpler way: You switch-off "resource-driven" and switch on "ignore resource calendar" in MSP --> import MPP into P3e ---> schedule and check dates (mostly the MSP-calendar was not maintained) --> Export to P3.
Regards
Dieter
- 0Paul Harris ·There is a technical article on my web site that may assist you.
The two products do calculate differently and it is often very hard to get them to calculate the same. This is explained in my article.
Paul E Harris
Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
Planning and Scheduling Training Manual & Book Publishers & Consulting
www.eh.com.au
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