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Project Online vs Project for the Web: What UK Public Sector Organisations Lose (and Gain)

Written by Ross Mardell, Chief Product Officer | Mar 3, 2026 10:43:23 AM

Since Microsoft announced the retirement of Project Online, one question consistently comes up in conversations with UK public sector organisations:

“Is Project for the web the replacement?”

The honest answer is that it depends entirely on what role Project Online plays in your organisation today.

As CTO at Verto, I spend much of my time looking beyond feature lists to understand architectural intent. Project Online and Project for the Web were designed for fundamentally different purposes and understanding that difference is essential before making any migration decision.

Why Microsoft Is Making This Shift

Microsoft’s direction of travel is clear. Across its portfolio, it is consolidating around:

  • The Power Platform
  • Modern, low-code services
  • Lighter, more flexible tools designed for broad adoption.

Project for the web fits squarely into this strategy. It is:

  • Easier to adopt
  • Integrated tightly with Teams
  • Designed for task and project execution rather than enterprise portfolio governance.

Project Online, by contrast, was built for:

  • Centralised control
  • Enterprise PMOs
  • Portfolio-level reporting and assurance.

Neither approach is “right” or “wrong”. They simply serve different needs.

A Capability-Level Comparison That Actually Matters

Capability

Project Online

Project for the web

Scheduling & Dependencies

  • Advanced scheduling via Project Desktop
  • Full dependency types
  • Multiple baselines
  • Earned value analysis
  • Critical path across complex plans
  • Simpler task scheduling
  • Limited dependency handling
  • No native earned value
  • Optimised for team-level delivery

Public sector implication:

If schedules are used for assurance, audit or gateway reviews, Project for the web may not provide sufficient depth on its own.

Resource Management & Capacity Planning

  • Central enterprise resource pool
  • Capacity vs demand views
  • Forward-looking allocation
  • Role-based planning
  • Task-level assignments
  • No true enterprise capacity planning
  • Limited forward visibility

Public sector implication:

Many public sector PMOs rely on Project Online to support workforce planning and funding decisions. This is one of the most common gaps encountered post-migration.

Portfolio Reporting & Oversight

  • Native portfolio views
  • Structured data model for Power BI
  • Cross-programme reporting
  • Requires significant Power BI configuration
  • Data often fragmented across tools
  • Portfolio views must be assembled, not provided

Public sector implication:

Reporting still exists, but it often becomes harder to trust and harder to maintain.

Governance & Assurance

  • Approval workflows
  • Stage gating
  • Central system of record
  • Historic audit trails
  • Minimal governance constructs
  • Heavy reliance on Power Automate and custom build

Public sector implication:

Governance does not disappear, but it becomes harder to evidence.

What Project for the Web Does Well

It’s important to be balanced. Project for the Web works very well for:

  • Team-level delivery
  • Lightweight project tracking
  • Collaboration within Microsoft Teams
  • Organisations without formal PMO structures.

For some public sector teams, particularly delivery teams within departments, it may be entirely sufficient. The challenge arises when it is assumed to replace enterprise PPM.

The Real Risk: Fragmentation by Default

What we increasingly see is not a clean replacement, but a patchwork:

  • Project for the Web for tasks
  • Planner for teams
  • Power BI for reporting
  • Excel for portfolio oversight
  • SharePoint lists for risks and issues

Individually sensible decisions that collectively introduce:

  • Data inconsistency
  • Reporting delays
  • Loss of confidence at executive level.

A CTO’s Bottom Line

Project for the Wb is not a drop-in replacement for Project Online. For UK public sector organisations, the right question is not:

“Can we migrate?”

But:

“Can we preserve the way we govern, assure and report delivery?”

That distinction should drive every decision that follows.

 

If you rely on Project Online for portfolio oversight, start with a capability gap assessment before committing to Project for the web alone.

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