Moving from Microsoft Project Online to Smartsheet: How to Make the Rollout Stick

Microsoft Project Online retires on 30 September 2026. Atturra’s Smartsheet practice can help organisations protect their project data, assess the available migration paths and prepare a practical migration plan before access to the service ends.

A successful move is not only about importing project files. It is about protecting the information your organisation relies on, choosing the right future-state platform and designing adoption from the start.

After the 30 September 2026, the cloud service and the data held in it will no longer be accessible. The retirement applies to Project Online, the service accessed through Project Web App. It does not include Microsoft Project desktop, Project Server or Microsoft Planner.

That distinction is important. Before choosing a migration path, organisations need to confirm which product they are running and what Project Online currently supports across project delivery, reporting, resourcing, approvals and integrations.

For organisations considering Smartsheet, the move can be a practical opportunity to modernise the way work is planned, updated and reported. Smartsheet combines project and portfolio visibility, real-time collaboration, dashboards and code-free workflow automation in a cloud-based work management platform. It can also sit alongside familiar Microsoft 365 tools, including Teams, Outlook, Excel and Power BI.

The platform decision is only one part of the work. The rollout determines whether teams adopt the new environment or recreate old problems in a new tool. These are the lessons that consistently make the difference.

1. Start with what must be protected

The fixed deadline is about access to information. Build an inventory before you build a new environment. Include active project schedules, historical records, timesheet data, baselines, reports, approval pathways, users, permissions and integrations. This reveals what must be extracted before retirement, what needs to be recreated and what can be retired rather than migrated.

2. Define the future state before selecting the tool

Project Online may be the trigger, but the decision should be based on how the organisation needs to manage work next. A smaller team may need straightforward task and project tracking. A complex PMO may need portfolio reporting, resource visibility, cross-project dependencies, governance controls and executive dashboards. Document these requirements first, then assess the available destinations against them.

This is also where the business case becomes more useful than a feature comparison. Consider the cost of implementation and support, the effort required to maintain reporting, the ability to work with external collaborators, adoption by non-project specialists and the value of having live information available to decision-makers.

3. Standardise before you scale

Rollouts that stick begin with a small number of agreed templates and definitions. Establish the core project hierarchy, fields, status definitions, naming conventions, reporting cadence and ownership model before opening the platform to every team. Without that foundation, the PMO can end up reconciling dozens of inconsistent trackers instead of improving visibility.

4. Treat migration as more than an import

Smartsheet provides a built-in pathway to import Microsoft Project MPP files. That is useful, but an MPP file is only one part of a mature Project Online environment. Custom fields, workflows, dashboards, reports, calendars, permissions and connected systems need their own mapping and validation.

A sound migration plan should include:

• a representative pilot project before migration at scale
• field-by-field and dependency validation
• agreed rules for historical and archived data
• reconciliation of reports, baselines and key metrics
• a cutover plan that limits double handling and protects business continuity

5. Balance governance with flexibility

Governance and usability are not opposites. Lock down too much and teams work around the platform. Leave everything open and they reproduce the fragmentation the organisation was trying to solve. Keep the enterprise standards non-negotiable, then give teams appropriate flexibility in how they view and manage their day-to-day work.

Smartsheet supports grid, table, Gantt, timeline, board and calendar views, allowing different roles to work with the same underlying information in a way that makes sense to them. The governance layer should define the data and reporting rules; the user experience can still reflect how each team works.

6. Make executive sponsorship visible

A sponsor’s name on a kick-off slide will not sustain adoption. Sponsorship becomes real when leaders use the new environment to run the business: they ask for the Smartsheet dashboard in the executive meeting, refer to agreed measures and stop accepting manually rebuilt versions of the same report. Consistent leadership behaviour makes the platform the source of truth.

7. Design adoption into the rollout

Training should be based on roles and real work, not a tour of every feature. Project managers, team members, executives and system owners each need a different starting point. Support adoption with champions, short role-based sessions, office hours, clear help pathways and early measures of usage and data quality.

The goal is not simply to switch systems. It is to make the new way of working easier to follow than the old one. When people can update work quickly and see how the information is used, adoption becomes part of delivery rather than a separate change program.

A practical sequence for the remaining window

With the retirement deadline now close, organisations should separate the immovable work from the work that can be staged.

A practical sequence is:

• Preserve: Extract and secure the project information, reporting outputs and history you cannot afford to lose before 30 September 2026.
• Assess: Confirm requirements, dependencies and platform fit. Avoid making a five-year decision from a generic feature list.
• Plan: Define the migration scope, governance model, implementation sequence, indicative timing and cost.
• Implement and adopt: Pilot, validate, migrate and support users in manageable stages, with clear ownership and success measures.

Where Smartsheet can fit

Smartsheet is worth assessing when an organisation needs more than a replacement for individual schedules. It can scale from a single project to program and portfolio management, with shared plans, real-time dashboards, automated requests and approvals, and portfolio-level visibility. Smartsheet is used by more than 123,000 organisations and 85% of the Fortune 500.

It is not necessary to leave the Microsoft 365 environment to use it. Smartsheet integrates with Teams and Outlook and can connect with Excel and Power BI.

Smartsheet and Planner can also be connected through Microsoft Power Automate where synchronisation of tasks, dates or assignments is required.

The right answer still depends on your complexity, governance requirements, integrations and operating model. That is why the assessment should come before the recommendation.

Plan the transition around your PMO

Atturra’s Smartsheet practice can help you identify what must be protected, assess the available migration paths and build a practical transition plan. The no-obligation PMO Transition Assessment covers your current environment, data and integration dependencies, governance needs, recommended destination, implementation sequence, indicative timing and cost. If a Microsoft path fits your requirements better, we will tell you.

Need a Microsoft Project Online migration plan or a no-obligation PMO Transition Assessment?

Speak with Aravind Gnanapandithan, Practice Lead, Smartsheet at Atturra, about your current Project Online environment, what needs to be protected and the most practical path forward.

Sources and further reading

Smartsheet: The best Microsoft Project Online replacement
Smartsheet: Switch from Microsoft Project – building the business case