How to Use Power BI with Microsoft Project?
Businesses and enterprises rely on project management tools to help their teams manage tasks and workflows effectively. Microsoft Project has been one of the most popular and widely used project management software for over 30 years. Developed with a focus on task prioritization and scheduling, Microsoft Project offers task lists, project roadmaps, Gantt charts, and Kanban boards, among other features. More importantly, Project is tightly integrated with other Microsoft applications such as Excel and Power BI. This helps managers keep close track of costs, risks and issues, and task completion status. In this article, we will focus on the integration of Power BI with Microsoft Project.
How to Connect Power BI with Project?
Integrating Power BI with Project involves the use of Power BI Desktop template, Dataverse, and Project Web App. Follow the steps below to connect Power BI with Project.
- Set up Power BI on the desktop by following the instructions on the setup wizard.
- Install the Power BI template, which can be supported on at least Project Plan 3 and Power BI Desktop or Power BI Pro.
- Complete the installations of the Project for the web report pack, Project Online report, or consolidated reports, based on the requirements.
- Provide the Dynamics 365 Dataverse instance and Project Online Project Web App URL on the Enter Parameters screen.
- Authenticate with the Microsoft 365 account credentials.
- Project for the web data stores data in the Dynamics 365 Dataverse. Consequently, the environment name, and the region value for the Dataverse URL are required for transferring data to Power BI. To create a Dataverse URL, navigate to Apps > All Apps in Office.com.
- Search for Business Apps and select the project application for which reports have to be generated for the organization. The Business Apps URL (Dataverse instance) that is created will include the environment and region value.
- Switch to the Project Online PWA site home page to find the Project Web App URL.
- Navigate to Go to Project Online from the Project Home page and copy the URL of the PWA Home page to be pasted in the PWA URL field in the Project template.
- Once the data from Project is shared with Power BI, publish reports to shared workspaces from Power BI Desktop, and configure the data refresh rates to ensure that the datasets are updated regularly.
Apps4Rent Can Help with Microsoft Project and Power BI Customization
While Microsoft provides native integration between Power BI and Project Web App, which is available as a part of Project Plan 3 and Project Plan 5, Microsoft does not provide support for using Project Desktop and MPP (Microsoft Project files) as sources for Power BI Desktop. However, Project Server and Power BI can be integrated using Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) drivers and third-party tools for establishing a direct connection.
As a Microsoft Power Platform Partner and a Gold Partner for competencies such as Cloud Platform and Application Integration, Apps4Rent can help businesses with licensing, hosting, and customizations of Microsoft cloud solutions such as Power BI and Microsoft Project. Call, chat or email our integration specialists available 24/7 for assistance.
