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# Answering the elephant in the room
- URL: https://www.d365architect.com/answering-the-elephant-in-the-room/
- Published: 2026-09-21T01:51:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-21T01:51:22.000Z
- Author: Jerome Asselin

What is Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Project Operations?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations is an end-to-end project management and professional services automation solution designed to help organizations plan, deliver, and financially manage customer projects within a single platform listed in Microsoft's ERP product family. 

It provides sales, resource management, project planning, time and expense tracking, invoicing, and financial reporting capabilities and connect them, providing a unified view of project performance from opportunity creation through project completion across the entire project lifecycle.

The primary business problem Project Operations solves is the disconnect that often exists between sales teams, project delivery teams, and finance departments. Many organizations struggle to keep project estimates, resource utilization, visibility into project profitability aligned with each other across each iteration or changes in projects. Project Operations brings these functions together, enabling organizations to improve forecasting accuracy, optimize resource allocation, control project costs, and gain real-time insight into project health and financial outcomes.

By integrating with the broader Microsoft ecosystem—including Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft Power Platform, and Microsoft 365—Project Operations helps organizations standardize project delivery processes while providing the flexibility to adapt to unique business requirements. The technical foundation of the platform allows integration following various patterns with different financial management software or using different architecture and processes than Microsoft's standard ones.

All this enables leadership teams to make data-driven decisions, reduce operational inefficiencies, and improve customer satisfaction through predictable project execution. 

The sweet spot for Dynamics 365 Project Operations is project-based organizations that sell and deliver services rather than physical products. This includes consulting firms, system integrators, engineering companies, IT services providers, software implementation partners, and professional services organizations. It is particularly valuable for businesses managing complex projects with multiple resources, phases, budgets, and billing models, where visibility into project profitability and resource utilization is critical to business success.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/01/04/01046de9-7e0b-4441-996a-1f9d5cf4f9d1/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-01-30-151935.png)

The diagram above is from a Microsoft presentation and I believe it illustrates best what is Project Operations, both the "Core" and "ERP Integrated" versions. 

Scheduling intensive industries where frequent rescheduling massive WBS is the norm might want to assess whether the product fits in their landscape. The heavy manufacturing companies having both to manage a project and at the same time account for inventory consumption for production would equally be challenged and that's where the "old-fashioned" Project Accounting and Management of AX and its competitors seat.

One of the key aspect and early decisions about the DataVerse Project Operations one will have to make is how it is intertwined with the rest of the enterprise management software, financial systems being at the core.

The source of the actuals the most impactful decision in this with 2 scenarios seen : either actuals come from finance of from project Operations. Both with drawbacks but I believe PO owning that is the most flexible and robust approach that then needs to push the transactions in finance.

Let's dive into this whole change as Microsoft is heavily investing in the product and bring new capability at all upgrades.

Happy POPS!