There are a number of key differences between Project Pro and Standard 2010:
- In a Project Server environment, Project Pro is required for desktop editing and saving project plans; Project Standard will not connect to Project Server
- Only Project Pro 2010 has the “Team Planner” view which was very well received by many people at Starbucks.
- Only Project Pro 2010 has the “inactive tasks” feature that was important for a few of the scenarios we covered in the Starbucks RFP process.
- Only Project Pro 2010 has the ability to synchronize with SharePoint task lists. This feature gives you a sort of “Project Server light” experience allowing some level of team collaboration. In an environment where everyone is using Project Server, this feature may have little value. There is a legitimate mixed-mode scenario where some departments with a higher level of process use Project Server, while other departments just use Project Pro + SharePoint and the data from both departments are available for high level reporting.
In every case, Project Professional has all of the features of Project Standard, plus some enhancements. For Project Professional 2003 and 2007, here are the differences compared to Standard:
- Connect with Project Server: Project Professional is required in order to create, check in, check out and edit plans that are maintained in Project Server
- Resource booking types: To specify resource assignments as proposed (for example, in projects that are still in the proposal phase) or committed, you can assign booking types to resources in Project Professional 2003. A new resource field contains the booking type (committed or proposed) that can be applied to all of a resource’s assignments in the project. Booking types are also used in Project Web Access 2003, where a resource manager can use it to staff projects in the new Build Team feature or to assess capacity versus demand in the Resource Availability Graph.
- Multiple resource skills for resources: Project Professional 2003 provides Enterprise Resource Multi-Value (ERMV) fields to include additional resource skill sets. ERMV fields can be used in resource views to maintain the skills inventory of enterprise resources, in the Build Team feature to search for resources with several skills, and in the Resource Substitution Wizard or Portfolio Modeler to consider the multiple skills of a resource.
- Multiple baselines: Set up to 11 baselines for a single project in Project Professional 2003.
Project Professional 2010 maintains those differences, but adds more (see the attached presentation for more detail):
- Only Project Pro 2010 has the new Team Planner view.
- Only Project Pro 2010 has the inactive tasks feature.
- Only Project Pro 2010 has the ability to synchronize with SharePoint task lists. This feature gives you a sort of “Project Server light” experience allowing some level of team collaboration.
