Your project plan becomes a file and keeps running
Moving to WORKSPACE.PM is a file import: upload .mpp or MS Project XML, map the resources, done. What arrives, what does not come across and how long it takes, all of it without varnish.
Four steps to a running plan
- 1ExportIn Project Online: File, Save As, Save As File.
- 2UploadContainer page, Create, Import project plan. XML is parsed in the browser.
- 3MapThe wizard proposes a person for every resource, every mapping correctable.
- 4VerifyBefore importing, the counts show what is created and what is skipped.
Your plan file never leaves your machine
MS Project XML is parsed entirely in the browser. Only the resulting structure reaches our server, never the document. Anyone who would rather not upload a schedule containing client names, rates and personnel data to a vendor does not have to here. Binary formats such as .mpp are converted server-side, passed through only and never stored.
How the move works
From the export in Project Online to a verified plan. The import itself takes minutes, the time goes into verification.
Export the plan
In Project Online: File, Save As, Save As File. Both formats work, MS Project XML is the better one.
- MS Project XML is read directly
- .mpp is converted automatically
- Primavera XER and PMXML, Asta Powerproject and GanttProject as well
Upload the file
On the container page of the target project: Create, Import project plan. The structure appears as a container tree with milestones, dependencies and assignments.
- Up to 64 MB per file
- XML is processed in the browser, the file never leaves your machine
- Other formats are converted and not stored in the process
Map the resources
The wizard proposes a person for every resource: first by email address, then by name, including „Last name, First name“ reversed. Deliberately without fuzzy matches, better left open than booked to the wrong person.
- Every mapping is shown and can be corrected
- You see up front how many assignments would drop for lack of a mapping
- Material and cost resources stay out of it
Choose the scope and verify
Before importing, each category can be switched off individually. The counts then show exactly what will be created and what gets skipped.
- Optional: dependencies, assignments, progress, baseline, costs, notes, effort
- Counts by containers, milestones, dependencies and assignments
- Skipped tasks are reported, not quietly dropped
What arrives
The import carries the plan logic, not merely a list of tasks.
| From Project Online | In WORKSPACE.PM |
|---|---|
| Tasks with outline | container tree in the same hierarchy |
| Milestones | a dedicated container type with a single date |
| Summary tasks | containers whose progress comes from their children |
| Start and finish dates | dates without time-zone shifting, no date drift |
| Duration | days, converted via the hours per day of your project calendar |
| Dependencies | FS, SS, FF, SF links including lag in days |
| Percent complete | progress on the container |
| Work and effort | planned effort in person-days, at leaf level |
| Cost | planned cost, likewise at leaf level |
| Baseline | baseline start and finish as a comparison state |
| Notes | container description |
| „Must start on“ and „Must finish on“ | marked as a fixed date |
| Resource assignments | assignments in person-days, merged per person |
What does not come across
This table is here so you know now, not three weeks after the move.
| Stays behind | Why | What instead |
|---|---|---|
| Calendars with working times and holidays | deliberately not transferred, only the hours per day are read | set the working-time model and company closures centrally once, it then applies to all projects |
| Actuals and timephased data | deliberately not transferred | progress comes across as a percentage, the day-by-day history stays in the export |
| Additional baselines | only the main baseline is read | archive older comparison states in the export, new ones are created from the move onwards |
| Cross-project links | stored in the plan format only as an external reference | recreate them at portfolio level after the import |
| External and inactive tasks | mirrors of other plans, or deactivated rows | skipped and counted, the number is on screen before the import |
| Lag in percent | not representable | ignored with a warning, add it afterwards as lag in days |
| Material and cost resources | only people are mapped to users | create them as cost items or as machine resources |
| Enterprise custom fields | their definitions live at tenant level, not in the plan file | define them again as custom fields, count them first, that drives the effort |
And what is not in the plan file at all
Project Online is more than schedules. Four things sit beside them and need their own route.
Timesheets and time history
Export via the OData feed while it still responds. The history is usually archived rather than migrated, ongoing recording starts in the new system.
Enterprise resource pool
People come in through user management, skills through resource attributes. One to two hours of initial setup, not a migration.
Documents, risks, issues
From the SharePoint project sites: documents into the project file store, risks into the risk register. Manual for a few projects, an import run for many.
Power BI reports
Rebuilt in any target system, including Microsoft’s own successor. Part of it falls away: status reports, earned value, the workload matrix and portfolio analytics are already included.
And you can get out again
A sentence that sounds different after this retirement than it did a year ago.
WORKSPACE.PM exports project plans back to MS Project XML, with outline, dates, dependencies, progress, effort, cost and resource assignments. You are not trading one dependency for the next: if you want something else in three years, you take your plans with you, in a format every serious planning tool reads. Plus a full data export and an open interface for everything else.
How long it takes
The import runs in minutes. What needs planning is the verification.
| Scope | Realistic effort |
|---|---|
| Initial setup: tenant, users, working-time model, roles | half a day to a day |
| 10 to 20 projects, few custom fields | one to two days including verification |
| 50 to 100 projects | three to five days, sensibly in waves |
| Rebuilding reports | the actual item, depending on how many analyses must be replaced and how many are already in the standard product |
Start with two or three projects you know well and compare dates, dependencies and effort line by line against the original plan. Only once that holds should you import the rest. Half a day that replaces any migration guarantee.
Frequently asked questions
What comes up most often before a move.
Both. XML is read directly in the browser, .mpp and the formats from Primavera, Asta and GanttProject are converted server-side. If you have the choice, take XML, then the file never leaves your machine.
They are skipped and counted. You see the number before the import, not afterwards.
Yes, and you should. 30 days free, no payment details. Take a real exported plan rather than a sample: a test import with your own file answers more questions than any feature list.
Then you need your export files, because the system they came from will be gone. The import works unchanged as long as the files exist. So export now, even if you decide later.
Then your move is a file import plus an initial setup. Expect one to two days.
Yes. Bring a real plan, we import it together and you see on your own estate what arrives and where it snags. Takes an hour.
Statements on the import scope refer to the current version. Statements about Microsoft products follow publicly available vendor information.