Using Planner in MS Teams to manage projects

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TOC
What is MS Planner?
Advantages of MS Planner
What can you do in MS Planner?
How to create a new project in MS Planner within Teams
How to add a team member to your MS Planner project in MS Teams
How to assign a task to a team member
How to create a task card to send notifications to select team members
How to schedule a due date and how this will benefit managing project timelines
Using Planner in MS Teams resources

What is MS Planner?

Planner is a Kanban board style project management system (similar to Trello) where you have a series of columns on the board in which project cards are placed and move across. A Planner plan can be added as a tab at the top of an MS Teams channel. There are also other project management apps that can be added in Teams as a tab at the top of a channel, like Trello or MS Project. Most of the time team members access our MS Planner Plans through MS Teams but they can actually also can access their Planner plans in a web browser by logging in Planner that way.

Advantages of MS Planner

  • Already hooked into and organization’s Outlook and able to send them project notifications.
  • Can be easier to use and more intuitive than more complicated project management systems.
  • Helps organize project materials for an organization’s team in one place instead in a bunch of different network locations and emails.

What can you do in MS Planner?

  • You can add a new project card by clicking ‘Add Task’.
  • You can assign someone to work on a project task by going into the task card and clicking on ‘Assign’. Then you can start typing and names will be auto-suggested.
  • You can add sub-tasks to a project, like a checklist, by going into the card and adding them under Checklist.
  • You could attach related documents to a card.  
  • You can add due dates, priorities, and labels to a card.
  • You can add notes to a card, and people working on the project can add comments as they go along.

MS Planner can be very useful in managing an academic organization’s projects, like developing new programs or curriculum. A project starts in the To-do column of the Kanban board and then proceeds through In-progress and Completed columns. Or teams could add custom columns to better suit the project.

How to create a new project in MS Planner within Teams

  • In MS Teams, go to the Team that you want your project to be in.
  • Go to the channel you want your project to be in.
  • Go to and click on the ‘+’ button at the top tool bar.
  • Search for the MS Planner (Tasks by Planner) and click on it.
  • Create a new plan (project), give the ‘Planner plan’ a name and click ‘Save’.
  • Go in your new Planner plan tab and set up the project columns (buckets).

Some examples of column bucket names might be: ‘to do’, ‘completed tasks’, ‘in-progress tasks’, ‘needs reviewed’, content topics, sub teams names, or any names specific to your projects. You can customize your buckets to meet the management needs for your project.

How to add a team member to your MS Planner project in MS Teams

You can add team members to your project by assigning them to a task in a task card.
By default, all the members of your Team can see Planner projects created in the Team. You can assign anyone from your MS Team to task cards in an MS Planner plan in the Team. In some cases, if someone isn’t already in the Team, you’ll need to be a Team owner (or ask your Team owner) to add them (depending on the Team’s settings).
You can add team members (or request to add members) by going to the three-dot menu beside the Team name, choosing ‘Manage Team’, and then clicking ‘Add member’.

How to assign a task to a team member

  • Create a task card for the task you want them to work on.
  • Click on the Assign field in the card and type in the name of the team member(s) who you want to assign to the task.
  • Click on that person’s name that comes up, they are now assigned to the card.

How to create a task card to send notifications to select team member(s) and the benefits of using the comments field for notifying your team

  • Create a task card and assign team members to it.
  • Set a project due date and create a checklist.
  • Instruct your team members to use the Comments field to update the group about. which checklist items they have completed. The group assigned to the card will get email notifications about the update.

How to schedule a due date for a task and how this will benefit managing project timelines.

  • Create a task card and assign team members to it.
  • Set a project due date. Team members will receive email reminder notifications when a due date is near and if a task is overdue.

MS Planner will send you and your team members reminder notifications when a due date is near.

 

Using Planner in MS Teams resources