Quite similar to the famous Trello software, Microsoft Planner is an ideal tool for managing tasks and teamwork. Available for Office 365 Enterprise subscribers, it facilitates collaborative work.
What is a planner?
Planner is a task manager included in the Microsoft 365 productivity suite (formerly Office 365). It offers a simpler and more modern solution than Microsoft Project, the historical project management tool from Microsoft.
This new generation solution is based on a task management with the possibility to control the evolution of projects through kanban boards.
Is Planner free ?
Microsoft Planner is included in the subscriptions of the Microsoft 365 Enterprise suite, whose entry price is 35.40 dollars per user and per month with an annual commitment (Microsoft 365 E3 plan).
Why use Planner ?
For Microsoft 365 users, Planner is a solid and efficient solution for task management. Oriented towards teamwork, it allows you to assign tasks, to share them with your collaborators by integrating any associated content, to follow the progress of each one, to visualize the due dates…
Planner is accessible online through tasks.office.com, but also as apps for iOS and Android. It also integrates with Microsoft Teams unified messaging through the Tasks app. A collaborative brick that is also designed to include actions managed via Microsoft To Do, Microsoft’s other task management tool. At the same time, Planner connects the tasks to be performed to the specification documents stored in SharePoint. Finally, it can use Power Automate to develop specific project management processes in no-code mode.
Planner allows you to create plans. That is to say, projects broken down into tasks assigned to project team members. To create a plan, the following procedure must be followed:
- Click on “New plan” on the Planner homepage,
- Enter the name of the plan,
- Assign this plan to an existing Microsoft 365 group or create a new group,
- Select + to create a task,
- Select its due date,
- Choose “Add a task”.
Planner allows you to export a task calendar once created in Outlook, so you can receive a reminder when a task is due or the deadline has passed. The task calendar can also be shared on Teams.
Planner can be integrated with Teams, to notify each user when a task is assigned, removed or completed. To do this, simply go to the team channel in charge of the associated project, add a tab, and select the Planner application. After programming the task scheduler, it is accessible to all members of the dedicated Teams channel.
Is it possible to manage a Gantt chart in Planner?
Planner does not allow the creation of a Gantt chart. For this, it is necessary to use Microsoft Project or Excel, also offered in the Office 365 suite.
To get Planner on Windows, simply go to your Microsoft 365 account, select the application launcher and choose Planner. On mobile, the Planner app can be downloaded from the Google Play for Android, and the App Store for iOS. Once the download has started, you only need to provide access to the Microsoft 365 account in order to use the tool.
Microsoft Planner vs Trello
Quite similar, both tools are widely used in companies to optimize teamwork. While Trello works with tables, lists and cards, Planner has plans, tasks and compartments. Despite the different vocabulary, the way it works remains the same. The big advantage of Planner, however, is its integration with Microsoft 365 tools such as ToDo and Teams.