Enhancements to Planner in Microsoft Teams channels
Posted inPlanner

Enhancements to Planner in Microsoft Teams channels

Posted inPlanner

Integrating Planner directly as a tab within Microsoft Teams channels marks a significant step forward in streamlining project management and team collaboration. This enhancement allows both basic and premium plans to be created and managed seamlessly within your existing Teams environment, eliminating the need to toggle between multiple applications. Whether you’re starting fresh or leveraging one of the many out-of-the-box templates, Planner’s new integration brings all your project planning tools into one unified space.

For administrators, this means simplified deployment and management of planning tools across teams. By embedding Planner as a tab, admins can ensure consistent access to project management features without additional setup complexity. Users benefit from having their task lists, progress tracking, and collaboration tools right where conversations happen, fostering a more natural and efficient workflow.

Getting Started with Planner in Teams Channels

Setting up Planner as a tab in your Teams channel is straightforward and intuitive. Here’s how you can get started:

  1. Select any standard Teams channel where you want to add Planner.
  2. Click the Open Apps icon located at the top right of the channel and search for “Planner.”
  3. Choose the option to Pin a tab for Planner.
  4. Click Save to add the tab.
  5. From here, you can either add an existing plan or create a new one directly within the channel.

When creating a new plan, you have the flexibility to start from scratch or select from a variety of templates tailored to different project types, such as event planning or building a CRM pipeline. This flexibility helps teams quickly align on project structure and objectives.

Watch this video to see how easy it is to pin Planner as a tab and create a shared workspace within your Teams channel.

What’s New in Planner for Teams Channels?

One of the standout benefits of this integration is the ability to track work, visualize progress, and monitor workloads—all within the context of your team’s daily communication hub. The latest updates bring both basic and premium plans into the same interface, allowing users to create and manage plans without switching apps.

For administrators, this consolidation simplifies user training and support, as teams operate within a familiar environment. Users enjoy a more cohesive experience, with all project-related information accessible alongside conversations and meetings.

As project demands evolve, upgrading from a basic to a premium plan is now effortless within the Teams tab. This upgrade unlocks advanced features designed to enhance project visibility and control, including:

  • Task dependencies: Easily view and manage relationships between interconnected tasks, helping to identify critical paths and potential bottlenecks.
  • Task history: Review all progress and changes made to tasks, providing transparency and accountability.
  • Custom fields: Track important information specific to your workflows, tailoring plans to your team’s unique needs.
  • Subtasks: Break down complex deliverables into smaller, actionable tasks for better clarity and execution.
  • People view: Visualize team members’ workloads, assign tasks, and monitor progress to ensure balanced distribution and collaboration.
  • Goals view: Set, track, and link project goals to tasks, aligning efforts with key objectives and milestones.
  • Copilot: Leverage AI-powered assistance to plan, manage tasks, and generate insights, boosting productivity and decision-making.
  • Baselines: Capture snapshots of project states at specific moments to track progress and identify deviations from the original plan.
  • Portfolios: Add plans to portfolios for high-level management and reporting across multiple projects.

To explore the full range of advanced capabilities available with premium plans, visit the official Microsoft support page. If you don’t currently have a premium license, you can try these features with a free 30-day trial. Importantly, team members with standard Microsoft 365 subscriptions can continue to collaborate on the same fields within premium plans, ensuring smooth teamwork regardless of licensing.

Impact on Admins and Users

From an administrative perspective, this integration reduces complexity by centralizing project management tools within Teams. It streamlines user onboarding and minimizes the need for multiple software licenses or training sessions. Admins can also better monitor adoption and usage patterns, enabling more informed decisions about resource allocation and support.

For users, the benefits are immediate and tangible. Having Planner embedded in Teams channels means less context switching and more time focused on actual work. The ability to visualize task dependencies and workloads directly within the collaboration space enhances team coordination and accountability. AI-powered features like Copilot further empower users by automating routine planning tasks and providing actionable insights.

We Want to Hear from You

Your feedback is invaluable in shaping the future of Planner within Teams. Microsoft encourages users and admins alike to share their experiences and suggestions to help improve the tool continuously. You can provide feedback through the Planner Feedback Portal or directly within the Planner app in Teams by clicking the More menu (the question mark icon) and selecting Feedback.

Additional Resources

Source: Microsoft



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