Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Planner is a project management application developed by Microsoft that allows teams to create, assign and organize work visually. With this app, companies can better facilitate teamwork, as well as progress visibility and coordination. Similar to other project board apps, Microsoft Planner is often compared to organizational solutions like Trello, Slack  and Asana.

Once opened through the Office 365 app launcher, Microsoft Planner is broken into plans, tasks and buckets (or groups of tasks). Creating a plan is equivalent to starting up a project which is made up of tasks organized into buckets, or categories. Each task can be assigned a deadline, label and team member. Aligned closely with the Microsoft Groups feature, Planner generates new groups around projects that show every team member updated progress and what is being worked on. Teams can also initiate conversations around plans and opt-in to receive email notifications with project updates.

Microsoft Planner can be used for a range of project management needs such as addressing time management concerns, ensuring work is equally distributed, brainstorming new ideas, managing a marketing campaign and preparing for a client meeting. Microsoft Planner is available for subscription to users with an Outlook 365 enterprise, education, business essentials or business premium plan.

Features of Microsoft Planner

• Inclusion of supplemental information for tasks such as attached files, meeting notes, photos, links, checklists, flags and comments.
• Project organization by categories such as quarter, type of work or department.
• Customizable user interface to best suit productivity with options like calendar view, drag and drop updates, picture view, progress report charts and pinned favorites.
• Cross-device support and integration with iOS and Android.
• Guest access to projects for users not assigned to a group or outside an organization.