The following table gives you an overview of the included, improved, and new features that Microsoft Project has to offer. Included are features that were introduced in previous versions of Microsoft Project, as well as the newest features from Project 2016. Microsoft continuously adds features to make project management more efficient for users. The latest version of Microsoft Project makes it much easier for everyone involved in the various aspects project work, to manage their resources, track progress with multiple timeline views, and give direct feedback to Microsoft about Project features. See for yourself how these features can be put to good use, click on the links below for content related tips from MPUG.
Feature
Project 2003
Project 2007
Project Standard 2010
Project Professional 2010
Project 2013
Project 2016
Description
Getting Started
Microsoft Fluent user Interface New Included Included Increase productivity with the Ribbon, a tab interface to quickly find and use Project features and controls. Personalize the ribbon by adding and/or removing actions on the tabs and creating personal galleries
Contextual Guidance New Included Included Quickly learn about features with hover-over command Tool Tips, Status bar messages and context-sensitive on line help.
Online Help Included Improved Improved Improved Included Go online to find expanded Help, step-by-step guides and video training.
Tell Me New Instead of searching in Project or in the online help resources, Tell Me, will look for whatever solution you need.
Zoom In/Out Quickly New Improved Included Zoom controls on the Status bar allow you to quickly change the timeline perspective of your project schedules.
Backstage™ New Included Included Quickly access tools, templates and program options for Project using the new Microsoft® Office Backstage™ view.
Save File to SharePoint Included Included Improved Improved Included Collaborate on your Project file with your colleagues by saving it to your Microsoft® SharePoint® site.
Create Projects from SharePoint Task List New Improved Included Convert your current SharePoint® tasks lists into a Project schedule.
Synchronize with SharePoint New Improved Improved Publish your project schedule to a SharePoint® task list, receive task updates from your resources and the two are automatically synchronized.
Add-ins New Microsoft Project Add-ins are now easier than ever to integrate with your Project. Microsoft partner applications can be downloaded in the same efficient manner as templates from the Office store.
New Themes New Change your project theme to which ever theme you prefer: colorful, dark gray, and white
Project Planning
Project Templates Included Included Included Improved Included Initiate project plans using best practice templates with pre-defined schedule and generic resource assignments.
Custom Fields Improved Improved New Included Included Capture and standardize project metadata using custom fields.
Enhanced Copy/Paste Improved Improved New Improved Improved Collaborate on schedule development by copying/pasting schedule details between applications with outline levels and formatting maintained.
Automatic Scheduling Included Included Included Included Included Use the powerful scheduling engine to plan, manage and track projects.
User-Controlled Scheduling New Included Included Puts you in control of the schedule with greater flexibility to specify task durations and start/finish dates.
Top Down Summary Tasks New Improved Included Support top-down and rolling wave planning to capture expected dates – later compare summary information with bottom-up schedule details.
Placeholder Text in Project Fields New Included Included Enter text notes in Date or Duration fields and change later when details are known
Active/Inactive Tasks New Included Included Perform what-if analysis and review impacts on schedule and resources by making tasks active/ inactive.
Multiple Level Undo New Included Included Included Perform what-if analysis and fully understand the impact of changes by reversing and re-applying an entire set of operations, including views, data and options changes.
Top Level Budget Planning New Included Included Included Define overall project or program budget to allocate funds and track costs, work and materials against the time-phased plan.
Manage Non-working Time New Included Included Included Accurately reflect when resources are available for project work by capturing vacations, exceptions and other calendar details.
Calendar Wizard Included Included Included Included Included Use the Calendar wizard to simplify the process of setting up resource and task calendars for your project.
Gantt Chart, Calendar and Task Sheet Views Included Included Improved Improved Included Use a variety of views to manage and review project data effectively
Network Diagram View Included Included Included Included Included Group tasks and display graphical indicators in a Network Diagram view
Timeline View New Improved Included See your entire schedule or review specific dates and deadlines using the completely new and visually enhanced Timeline view.
Multiple Timeline View New & Improved See more than one visually enhanced timeline view to help visualize different phases of your project plan. You can set both start and end dates for each timeline from this view.
Deadlines Included Included Included Included Included Set due dates for tracking and reporting without creating constraints on tasks
Formulas and Graphical Indicators Included Included Included Included Included Effectively communicate status and track project metadata by assigning formulas, pick lists and graphical indicators to custom fields.
Group and Sort Project Data Included Improved Improved Improved Included Combine and organize project information in a variety of ways using custom or default grouping and sorting.
Filtering Included Included Improved Included Included Quickly filter data for any column header with custom and default filtering options.
Auto-Complete Included Improved Improved Included Enter project details with Excel-like ease using an auto-complete pop-up display of previously used values.
Dynamically Add Columns New Improved Included Add columns by entering data in the cells without first selecting the data type.
Text Wrap New Improved Included Row height is adjusted automatically to display full contents of a cell.
Background Cell Highlighting New Improved Included Included Highlight important dates, costs or tasks by changing the background color of select cells in a table portion of the view.
Expanded Color Palette and Formatting New Included Included Use the extended color palette and rich graphical formatting options to emphasize important details and personalize project schedule details.
Baseline Rollup Included Included Included Included Included Control how baseline data is rolled up to summary tasks for up-to-date tracking of projects.
Master Projects Included Included Included Included Included Create programs with more than one sub-project for program-level management, tracking and reporting.
Cross-project Critical Path Included Included Included Included Included Calculate critical path across all projects in a master project to determine the overall critical path for the program.
Publish Projects to Project Server Included Included Improved Included Included With Project Server 2010, gain control across all types of work, improve project selection and strategic alignment, maximize resource utilization and visualize performance through powerful dashboards.*
Resource Planning and Management
Resource Engagements New Request a resource in project and your resource manager can accept or deny your request. If accepted, your resource will lock to ensure availability.
Resource Views New A designated space for resource managers to look at and accept or deny all resource requests.
Work, Generic and Material Resources Included Included Included Included Included Define and assign named work (person or equipment) resources, generic (skill-based, for example, DBA) resources, or consumable material resources such as lumber or concrete.
Cost Resources New Included Included Included Support accounting system integration and definition of multiple time-phased fixed costs on each task.
Team Resources New Included Included Included Associate enterprise resources with a team to show team allocation, assignment and status and to allow resources within the team to assign themselves to team tasks.*
Team Planner New Only included with Project Professional Included Visually drag and drop resources in an interactive resource view to simplify complex resource scenarios.
Resource Sheet and Usage Views Included Included Included Improved Included Use variety of views to change resource information and review work and allocation details.
Resource Leveling Included Included Improved Improved Included Recognize and correct resource overload scenarios using various resource leveling techniques.
Resource Substitution Included Included Included Included Included Easily locate qualified resources to substitute for scarce or unavailable resources.
Project Tracking, Analysis and Reporting
Resource Capacity Heat Maps New New reporting feature that allows you to quickly see how your resources are being used.
Change Highlighting New Included Improved Included Easily view project changes and all parts of the schedule affected by the change (successor tasks, summary costs, etc.) with change highlighting.
Task Inspector New Included Included Recognize concerns and take corrective action such as level over-allocated resources on task-by-task basis.
Compare Project Versions Included Included Improved Included Included Review differences and compare schedule details between versions.
Reschedule Uncompleted Work Included Included Improved Included Included Reschedule uncompleted work on tasks by selecting any reschedule date while maintaining constraints.
Schedule Warnings New Included Included View alerts to potential scheduling concerns and choose whether to act.
Update Project Progress Included Included New Included Included Use variety of tracking methods such as % complete and actual work to capture status.
Standard Reports Included Included Included Included Included Report status on project tasks, status, costs and earned value using summary, list and cross-tabular reports.
Visual Reports New Improved Included Included Take advantage of and tailor out of the box summary and pivot table reports that use Visio and Excel templates.
Desktop OLAP Cube New Included Included Included Create powerful reports and mine project data efficiently by exporting Project data into a Microsoft Office Access database and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cubes.
PDF/XPS Output New Improved Included Distribute and share your project plan details with others by saving it to PDF or XPS format.
Project Collaboration
In-App Feedback New Give your feedback directly to Microsoft in the File tab by clicking on the Feedback section.
Enhanced Copy/Paste New Included Included Easily share project information by copying and pasting between applications while maintaining outline levels and formatting.
Synchronize with SharePoint New Included Included Publish your project schedule to a SharePoint® 2010 task list, receive task updates from your resources and the two are automatically synchronized.
Save File to SharePoint Included Included Improved Included Included Collaborate on your Project file with your colleagues by saving it to a SharePoint® site.
Publish Projects to Project Server Included Included Improved Included Included
Scalable 64-bit Support New Included Included Offering 64-bit compatibility provides customers with performance improvements, especially attractive for customers that create very large and complex master projects.
Integrated communication features New Included Get progress updates, ask quick questions, or even have long-term strategy discussions, all without leaving project. Need to integrate Skype for Business to take advantage of this feature in Project 2016.