What is Dynamics 365 Project Operations?

Project Operations is Microsoft’s solution for project-based businesses—consulting firms, advisors, developers, and engineering companies. It covers the entire process, from sales opportunities and estimates through staffing and delivery to time tracking and invoicing.

What sets it apart from a pure project management tool

A standard project management tool helps you plan tasks. Project Operations connects the plan to the financials. The estimate you create during the sales phase becomes the basis for the project you actually deliver, and the hours logged along the way become the basis for the invoice. This connection makes it possible to determine whether a project is profitable while it is still in progress.

The four components

Sales and estimation, where the project estimate is used directly in the proposal. Planning with a work plan and tasks. Resource management, showing who is available and who is overbooked. And project finances, where costs and revenue are tracked against the budget.

When it’s the right tool

Project Operations delivers the most value when projects are small enough to be numerous and large enough to require staffing plans. If you deliver two major projects a year, it is a lot of machinery. If you have thirty ongoing engagements and struggle to know who will be available next month, that is precisely the problem the solution is designed to address.