Microsoft Project Migration Plan Template (30-Day Cutover)
Move your Microsoft Project or Project Online portfolio with a plan, not a prayer. This migration plan template sequences a 30-day cutover, inventory and stakeholder sign-off, data export and cleanup, staging import, reconciliation and pilot UAT, then the production cutover, and it ships with a pre-logged risk about legacy custom-field mapping so the most common surprise is already on your radar.
No credit card. Opens as a real project on the Free plan.
What’s inside
The full plan is below, every task with its description, duration, and priority. Open the template and all of it is scheduled from today, ready to edit.
10
Scheduled tasks
5
Phases
2
Milestones
~4
Weeks end to end
The plan, phase by phase
Audit2 tasks
Inventory source projects + custom fields
Count of projects, tasks, resources, enterprise custom fields.
Identify stakeholders + sign-off owners
Programme sponsor, PMO lead, per-portfolio project managers.
Data Prep3 tasks
Export .MPP + ProjectOnline OData feeds
One export per project. Stash in secure shared folder.
Clean + normalise source data
Drop cancelled projects, fix orphaned tasks, deduplicate resources.
Map custom fields to Onplana equivalents
Field-by-field mapping doc, sign-off from PMO before import.
Import1 task
Run staging import + smoke test
Import into staging org. Spot-check 10% of projects.
Validation2 tasks
Reconcile staging vs source (counts + totals)
Task counts, planned hours, assignees, dependencies.
UAT with 3 pilot project managers
Each PM walks through their portfolio. Log + fix issues.
Cutover2 tasks
Run production import
Full import into prod. Freeze source edits for the window.
Decommission read-only access to MS Project
Flip source system to read-only, notify users, update SSO.
Milestones
Milestones land on the timeline automatically and show as diamonds on the Gantt chart, so the dates that matter stay visible.
Staging ready
Day 15 of the plan
Production cutover
Day 28 of the plan
Frequently asked
Does this template import my actual .mpp files?
The template is the cutover plan itself, the tasks, phases, and milestones that take you from inventory to production import. The importing happens inside Onplana, which reads .mpp, MSPDI XML, and Project Online OData natively, preserving tasks, dependencies, milestones, custom fields, and costs. The plan tells you when to run each import and what to check afterwards.
How long does a Microsoft Project migration take?
This plan schedules a 30-day cutover: about a week of audit and data prep, a staging import in week 2, reconciliation and pilot UAT in week 3, and the production cutover in week 4, with staging-ready and production-cutover milestones built in. Small portfolios finish faster; large PMOs often run the validation phase longer. Either way, the structure stays the same.
What about enterprise custom fields and resources?
The plan dedicates a task to field-by-field custom-field mapping with PMO sign-off, and it ships with a pre-logged risk: legacy MS Project custom fields that use formulas or enterprise resource types may not map cleanly and can need manual recreation. Surfacing that risk on day one is exactly what keeps a cutover on schedule.
Start with the plan already built
Open the Migration from MS Project template free and your phases, tasks, and milestones are scheduled before the kickoff meeting. No credit card, no time limit.