Project Sunsetting or Why is My PMO Big Mad?

 This post is part of our comprehensive series on decommissioning legacy Project systems. Navigating the end-of-life for PWA requires a multi-faceted approach:


For over a decade, the recommended path for intranet and collaboration was clear: the cloud was the promised land. We were told to pack up our data, leave our on prem hardware behind, and move into the digital equivalent of a sleek high-rise apartment. It was the fully furnished condo that was supposed to make the maintenance of on-premise infrastructure a thing of the past. We moved in, hung our pictures, and got comfortable.

Now, the landlord has decided to pull the plug on at least one of the rooms in our pricy apartment. 

It came as no surprise that Microsoft is retiring Project Server 2016 this July, after a five years of extended support. But it was definitely a little surprising that they're also retiring Project Server 2019 on the same date after only a year and a half of extended support. However, the shocker was that Project Online will also be sunsetted this September, with no extended support offered as of this writing. The irony is that after years of being told that "Cloud First" was the only way to live, the only place left with true 1:1 feature parity, the only spot that actually fits all of our old furniture, is the basement of our parents' house. That basement is Project Server Subscription Edition.

If you haven't been following Microsoft's licensing scheme transition, Subscription Edition is the version of on prem software, like SharePoint Server and Project Server, that requires a subscription license in addition to the server licenses required to run these solutions. These are on-premise solutions being sold as the modern fallback, and while it smells like the childhood home we remember, it comes with a monthly rent check that never ends.

We are in a bit of a gray area here. We can’t change the fact that the intelligence we were operating on was less than permanent, so we have to make some lemonade out of these high-tech lemons.

These changes obviously put us all in a tight spot, the sunsetting dates are approaching whether we're ready for them or not. There is no "read-only" grace period here; when the clock hits zero, the URL simply stops resolving.

Project Server, Important Dates

April 2, 2026: The Workflow Freeze. This is the real "chill of death" moment for many PMOs. SharePoint 2013 workflows will be retired. Since the classic environment relies on these for almost every automated approval and stage-gate, your system will effectively lose its voice on this day.

July 14, 2026: Project Server End of Life. Versions 2016 and 2019 reach the end of extended support. No more patches, no more security updates, and no more safety net.

Project Online Important Dates

September 30, 2026: The Final Sunset. Project Online is fully retired. The data vanishes, and the high-rise is demolished.

If we are going to survive this, and we are we have to be pragmatic. We need to decide if we want to rebuild our entire way of working or if we just want to keep the screwdriver we’ve been using for twenty years.


The Option

The Pitch

The Reality

 New Planner (Premium)

 The "Modern" Choice. Fast, integrated with Teams, and very sleek.

 No Project Desktop sync. It’s for people who want to listen to their team, not necessarily solve complex resource puzzles.

 Dynamics 365 Project Ops

 The "Professional" Choice. Built for deep financials and resource actuals.

 It’s a heavy lift and requires specialized knowledge. If you aren't tracking project profitability with 90% accuracy, it’s probably overkill.

 Project Server SE

 The "Traditional" Choice. The only 1:1 parity option available.

 You are back in the basement. You are managing servers again, just with a modern subscription price tag.

 

I generally pride myself on wanting to help people navigate these shifts, but the first step is admitting that the situation is messy. If your organization relies heavily on the "utilitarian" features of the Project Desktop client—the complex leveling, the deep dependencies, and the classic PWA interface—then Project Server Subscription Edition is your only real path to maintaining the status quo. You’re moving back to the basement, but at least your couch still fits through the door.

However, if you are tired of the "pine smell" of local servers and are willing to embrace a bit of cultural reassignment, the New Planner is where the paved roads are leading. Just keep in mind that moving your data from SharePoint lists into Dataverse tables isn't a "lift and shift"—it’s a total rebuild.

The screwdriver has rolled behind us, and the glasses are already on top of our heads. We can either complain that the high-rise is closing, or we can start mapping our SharePoint workflows to Power Automate today. April 2026 is closer than it looks, and you don't want to be the only one left in the dark when the landlord finally turns off the lights.

 

Sources & Further Reading:

Retirement Deadlines and Official Announcements

 

Migration Paths and Documentation

 

Strategic Planning Guides

 

 This post is part of our comprehensive series on decommissioning legacy Project systems. Navigating the end-of-life for PWA requires a multi-faceted approach:


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