Microsoft announced in 2025 that Project Online, its cloud-based project and portfolio management service, will be fully retired on 30 September 2026. New Project Online-only SKU sales ended on 1 October 2025. From 1 October 2026, the service is gone. (Source: Microsoft Community Hub, 2025.)
For most teams, this is a scheduling tool migration. For regulated manufacturing and med-tech teams, it is more complicated than that. This post explains why, and what to check before the deadline.
With a 30 September deadline and migrations typically taking two to three months when you factor in data export, validation, and team onboarding, planning should be underway now if it is not already.
Teams managing projects under ISO 13485, EU MDR, or similar regulatory frameworks use their project management tool for more than scheduling. Over the life of a regulated project, the tool typically holds:
When Project Online retires, all of this disappears unless it has been migrated. For active projects, that means a gap in the project record. For completed projects, it may mean missing evidence if a regulatory body or notified body requests the project history.
Priority action: Before anything else, identify which regulated projects were live or completed in Project Online within the last five years. For each one, export the full project file and any associated reports. Store these exports in your controlled document management system, not just a local drive.
Microsoft's position is that Project Online was built on architecture that limits the ability to deliver modern, AI-powered project management experiences. The company is investing in Microsoft Planner and a new "Project Manager agent" as its go-forward project management surface. (Source: Microsoft Community Hub, 2025.)
The honest read for regulated teams: Microsoft Planner is a task management tool built for general collaboration. It does not have native stage gate governance, a structured risk register, or the document audit trail that regulated project management requires. It is not a like-for-like replacement.
The right choice depends on your team's requirements. If your regulated projects need to demonstrate controlled governance to auditors, QA teams, or notified bodies, the question is not just "what replaces the schedule?" It is "what maintains the project record with the integrity a regulated environment requires?"
On cut-over timing: If you have an active regulated project in Project Online, switching platforms mid-phase creates a gap in the project record. Where possible, time the migration to coincide with a phase gate or a project start. If you must migrate mid-phase, document the cut-over explicitly in the project record with a clear statement of what was held in Project Online and what moves to the new platform.
The Project Online retirement is not an isolated event. It reflects a broader shift in how project management tooling is developing. Microsoft's own direction is towards AI-assisted, integrated project management, not standalone Gantt-based scheduling.
For regulated manufacturing and med-tech teams, this shift has been coming for some time. The tools that were built for commercial project management, whether desktop scheduling software or general-purpose cloud platforms, were never designed for the governance requirements of a regulated environment: structured gates, formal risk acceptance, audit-ready records, and design history file traceability.
The Project Online retirement creates a natural decision point. Rather than migrating like-for-like to another scheduling tool and rebuilding the same collection of supplementary spreadsheets for risk, gates, and budget, the migration is an opportunity to move to a platform that covers all of these in one place.
For a fuller look at the limitations of scheduling-only tools for regulated projects, see the post on when regulated manufacturing teams outgrow Microsoft Project.
Microsoft Project Online is retiring on 30 September 2026. After that date, users will no longer be able to access their projects or data in Project Online. Microsoft announced that new Project Online-only SKU sales ended on 1 October 2025, with the full service retirement confirmed for 30 September 2026. (Source: Microsoft Community Hub, 2025.)
After 30 September 2026, access to Project Online will be cut off. Microsoft has provided migration guidance to move data to Microsoft Planner or Project Server Subscription Edition. Regulated manufacturing teams should prioritise exporting and migrating project records, including schedule baselines, risk logs, and any gate documentation stored in the platform, before the deadline.
The main options are: Microsoft Planner (Microsoft's replacement, built for general task management), Project Server Subscription Edition (on-premise, significant IT overhead), or a purpose-built project and portfolio management platform designed for regulated environments. Regulated teams should assess whether the alternative supports stage gate governance, RAID management, budget tracking, and an audit trail, not just scheduling.
In regulated manufacturing and med-tech, the project management tool often holds more than schedules. It holds risk logs, gate decision records, budget approvals, and document links that form part of the project audit trail. If this data is not migrated and preserved before the September 2026 deadline, teams may face gaps in their design history files or compliance records for projects that were live in Project Online.
Arcturus Pro is a project and portfolio management platform built specifically for regulated manufacturing and med-tech teams. Stage gate governance, RAID management, budget tracking, and a full project audit trail in one place. Book a 30-minute walkthrough to see if it fits your requirements.
Book a Demo