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MS Project Round-Trip Planning

One of the most powerful capabilities of MSP Planner is its ability to let you "live in two worlds." You can leverage the collaborative power of Jira for your team's daily execution, while maintaining the professional reporting standards of Microsoft Project for your stakeholders.

This is achieved through Lossless Round-Trip Interoperability.

MSP Roundtrip

The Round-Trip Workflow​

Unlike simple file converters that only move dates, MSP Planner maintains a persistent link between your schedule and the underlying Jira issues.

Step 1: Export for Review​

When you need to share your plan with a PMO or a client who uses MS Project:

  1. Use the Export control in the toolbar.
  2. The app generates a MSPDI/XML file with the embedded metadata that preserves the project structure, dependencies, and resource assignments.
  3. Send this file to your stakeholders for review and modification.

Step 2: External Modification​

Your stakeholders can open the file in Microsoft Project, adjust dates, add new milestones, or reallocate resources. Because MSP Planner uses Identity Preservation, these changes are tracked against the original task and resource IDs.

Step 3: Import and Reconcile​

Once the reviewed file is returned:

  1. Use the Import control to bring the modified file back into MSP Planner.
  2. The app automatically matches the rows in the file to the live Jira issues.
  3. You can now review the changes and "Push" the updated dates back to Jira to inform your team.

Why "Identity Preservation" Matters​

In most Jira-to-MSP tools, importing a file creates a new set of tasks or requires manual mapping. MSP Planner uses Identity Markers (Hashes).

  • The Link: Every linked task and resource carries a stable, machine-readable hash.
  • The Result: When you import a file, the app doesn't ask "Which task is this?"—it knows. It recognizes the identity marker and updates the existing record, ensuring that your planning remains connected to live execution data.

Hybrid Scheduling​

The round-trip model also allows for Hybrid Schedules. You can maintain a mix of:

  • Linked Tasks: Real Jira issues that sync with your team.
  • Schedule-Only Tasks: Milestones or external dependencies (e.g., "Client Sign-off") that only exist in the plan.

This allows you to model the entire project lifecycle, including the parts that happen outside of your Jira project.