Open a Project Management work plan from Microsoft Project

A project manager who uses Project Management to manage projects can open, in Microsoft Project, a Project Management work plan from Microsoft Project. The manager can distribute the Microsoft Project file to external audiences (such as a PMO group). The manager could also synchronize the Microsoft Project file with Project Management periodically, and run Microsoft Project reports for distribution.

For more information on synchronizing your Project Management work plan with its Microsoft Project counterpart, see Set Synchronization Mode for Project Management and Microsoft Project.

To open a Project Management work plan in Microsoft Project:

From the Microsoft Project Add-Ins tabbed area, select PPM Center> Open a work plan from PPM center.
If prompted, type your Project Management username and password and click OK.
Search for then select a work plan to open.

You can only select from projects that have active work plans. Additionally, the system will indicate whether the work plan you have chosen has already been integrated with Microsoft Project.
Click Select or double-click the selected item.

Select PPM Center> Show Errors, Warnings and Info to view any informational messages, errors, or warnings that occurred while opening the work plan in Microsoft Project.

The task structure and task names for the project in Project Management and the project in Microsoft Project will be identical. There will be a one-to-one relationship between tasks, and tasks will appear in the same sequence in both projects. Tasks are marked as fixed duration, which causes resource assignments and efforts to match. Scheduled start and finish dates for tasks without actuals will be identical in Project Management and Microsoft Project.

Duration is calculated by Microsoft Project based both on the start and finish dates and the resource calendars in Microsoft Project. Task durations and roll-up durations will sometimes differ slightly between the two applications.

Variances in duration may also be caused by:

Calendar exceptions and holidays (they are not synchronized)
Task constraints when Microsoft Project is in automatic calculation mode (for example, if Task 2 starts when Task 1 ends, and if the duration of Task 1 changes, then the start date of Task 2 also changes)

Regional calendar settings applied to the project calendar in Microsoft Project include:

Number of hours per day
Working days for each week

Custom filters and tables are available for you to quickly view any changes. See Custom Microsoft Project Filters and Tables for more information.