With the previously announced collaboration between Microsoft Project, Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform groups, it might be a little tricky to grasp exactly how this change of direction will impact current Project Online and Dynamics 365 PSA users. While some of the announcement are yet to come, the Dynamics PSA team has released some key update notes in their “wave 2” release roadmap. You can find the full announcement in details here or read the summary below.
Our 2019 release wave 2 will build on this new project service and will deliver the Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation capabilities with Microsoft Project in a single experience.
In summary, the Dynamics PSA/Project Service solution currently offered will slowly being to merge with Microsoft Project scheduling capabilities in a modern user interface. Both solutions will share the same database “Common Data Service”, and organizations will gain the benefits of a “better together” platform offering including core elements from the Power Platform such as Flow, PowerApps and Power BI. The rationale behind this new direction is to provide customers with the strongest all-up platform offering, allowing formal and informal project managers to “work the way they want”, without loosing top-down control requirements – a.k.a. portfolio and program management.
Depending on whether you are an active Project Online user, Dynamics PSA user or perhaps starting to use Planner, the benefits and user stories will vary. For this “wave 2” announcement, focus is on the offering and updates as seen from a Dynamics PSA perspective. The three main areas and expected release dates are shown here:
Comprehensive project operations
Ability to set up split-billing for project contracts
Ability to set up not-to-exceed limits for project contracts and quotes and enforce them during invoicing
Ability to set up billing and chargeability options for work breakdown structure (WBS) tasks
Support for retainers on project contracts
Point-of-origin-based project operations
Revenue recognition for Project Service Automation projects
Joint Dynamics 365 and Office offering for project-based organizations
Built on Common Data Service, the new project service solution will be released by Office in the third quarter of 2019. This solution will introduce the Project Scheduling Service, a cloud-based version of Microsoft Project’s highly performant scheduling engine. We have designed a set of core project entities based on the intersection of key Project Service Automation entities and Microsoft Project capabilities. This experience will be delivered only through the new project service user interface, and only include the capabilities shipping with that product, including work breakdown structure (WBS), Gantt, and task scheduling.
Our 2019 release wave 2 will build on this new project service and will deliver the Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation capabilities with Microsoft Project in a single experience. This will include capabilities such as bookings, sales, pricing, costing, time and expense capture, and approvals and project actuals. These capabilities will be packaged as a solution representing Dynamics Sales Extension for Projects. New customers will have the ability to build on these joint features at this time. We will be releasing an upgrade strategy for existing Project Service Automation customers after this new experience is available.
Upgrade from Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation to Better Together
The 2019 release wave 2 will include investments that allow existing Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation customers to move to the new combined Office (new Project Service) and Dynamics (Dynamics Sales Extensions for Projects) offering in a frictionless manner. We will leverage capabilities from the platform team to provide a frictionless upgrade of data from the old Project Service Automation application to the new offering.
Watch this video to gain more information about the changes and new business benefits from a future, united, Project Service experience.