We use Planner to manage a daily stand up/check in meeting. Planner solves the simple problem of having a central online location for managing the status and progress of key activities of all of our development and operations projects. We are a small team, but it keeps us aligned and allows us to capture key information of each project/effort.
Pros
Managing status/progress of projects.
Assigning key tasks to team members.
Keeping everyone aligned because it is available for everyone to view and update as needed.
Very simple to use.
Integrated well with Microsoft other productivity products and solutions.
Cons
Planner is not very robust compared to other competitors out there.
The search function is not so great
There should be the ability to add more tasks per card if needed
At times it is necessary to manually refresh the page to ensure it is in synch.
Moving data around doesn't work so great.
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft Planner is great if you have a relatively small team and don't need anything really elaborate or robust in managing status of projects. It works great for stand ups and daily check meetings. Based on the lack of real robust features I think it would not work great for large projects with lots of complexity and people.
VU
Verified User
Professional in Corporate (Information Technology & Services company, 11-50 employees)
Microsoft Planner is the best way to manage all my team tasks and deliver everything on time. Previously, I was using Asana for the same workflow. But Microsoft offered this tool within the package of our outlook mail. The tool made it easy to list all the day, week, and month tasks so we can keep a track of everything at the time [in] a single place. Moreover, we can add our team members, add deadlines, set priorities, and even assign tasks to members. We were able to track all the work of our clients, i.e. where we have reached the tasks and goals for a particular client. Multiple board options made it easier to differentiate various clients and their work. Thus, the software was very beneficial for [the] overall workflow of our marketing team.
Pros
Team tasks management
Deadline management
Easier workflow with different boards
Priority tasks to be highlighted
Cons
Should send a notification when a task is assigned to someone
There's no option to delete comments
Notification required when a task [has a] deadline
Likelihood to Recommend
Appropriate: [Microsoft] Planner helped to remember the minor tasks that we used to forget. Helpful to manage the tasks of [the] team. Moreover, we can check the schedule of a particular board and thus know what tasks need to be done on [a] priority basis. Less appropriate: When we assign a task to someone, they do not get any email notification. Thus, have to convey [a] message through some other source.
In my company, we do a lot of web projects and work with both clients and subcontractors. The planner was a Godsend mostly because it is operated via a mobile app and integrates with MS Teams so tasks show up in the app for each member. It gets the work done and keeps it out of a chat thread with minimal disruptions to your workday.
Pros
Add as many plans as you want
Keeps tasks organized via Buckets into each plan
Ability to create a plan directly within Teams via the Tasks app
Cons
Ability to assign an existing plan to a channel in Teams that was created in the mobile app
Reminders & alerts please!
Likelihood to Recommend
You cannot use it for project management. It is suited for Kanban style task boards very much needed to keep everyone on the same page. Great for task management and operational activities It has zero ability to assign a time or integrate with a time tracking tool or calendar tasks. This means you cannot do a time & cost analysis on your ongoing projects or business operations.
The majority of our services use Microsoft Planner to manage their work efficiently. Its integration with Microsoft Suite and other products such as Microsoft teams/office365 makes it easier for you and your team to manage tasks.
We used it to view the project process and the assignments assigned to each team member. It also provides useful information about the progress of the project or if we don't meet our timelines.
It also helps you to create different team/groups for a common project and helps leads to manage multiple projects at one place with multiple groups
Pros
It helps you to create a proper project plan and multiple tasks
Integration with other Microsoft products
Easy task Management and progress tracking
Cons
Integration with other suites like Google/Gmail
User Interface
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft Planner is a well-suited tool if you want it to be integrated with other Microsoft tools. It helps you to manage multiple projects with multiple different teams to manage their tasks and see the overall project status at a place. It also helps teams to share files in the respective group and everyone in the group will be notified of any newly added tasks.
However, If it is required to follow agile effectively with proper story points then would recommend going with more powerful tools like JIRA to manage things in a more effective manner and (JIRA cloud) have integration available now with team also which is a great add-on
VU
Verified User
Team Lead in Information Technology (Information Technology & Services company, 10,001+ employees)
We use the Microsoft Planner in our organization heavily to create, manage and orchestrate the simple to complex project plans / tasks. The ability to create, edit, view and share the plan, files and timelines with the internal and external team is helpful and versatile. The smooth integration of native Office 365 apps improves the usability of Microsoft Planner. It is amazing that each new plan created in Microsoft Planner automatically creates a new Office 365 group.
Pros
Project plan creation, managing, assigning the tasks within the team and tracking the status in real time
File sharing, orchestrating the communication
It enables us to communicate and collaborate with other users, and receive progress updates via various means.
Cons
Microsoft Planner has the basic and common set of features that most other project management software already have, MS should think of adding some exclusive features apart from the traditional feature sets
Microsoft Planner misses on native ability to manage and note the time expense of professionals working on the tasks
Existing Gantt chart layout can be improvised by adding navigation and clear from tasks dependent on each other
Likelihood to Recommend
I would recommend Microsoft Planner to anyone who is using Office 365 apps and would like to leverage the best in class native connector to link the tasks, documents and conversation from the other Office 365 apps with their Planning platform. The ability of Planner to integrate and connect with Office 365 cloud is really commendable and highly useful. It has all the required features that one would need for creating, managing plans and tasks for simple - really complicated and large enterprise level projects!
Microsoft Planner is used to manage projects and initiatives for different teams inside the organization. It is also used to manage day-to-day activities of different teams working on a single project. Managers use it as a tool to manage roadmaps for different active and upcoming projects in their department.
Pros
Manage active items in progress with detailed information
Time planning and deadline management
Categorization of different projects
Cons
Tagging, labeling, and details for individual cards
Reporting and dashboards
User experience and interface
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft Planner is well suited for task planning needs for managing different projects. It is well suited for tracking tasks, planning sprints, assigning tasks to other team members, viewing deadlines, and tracking timelines. It also helps with Microsoft Teams integration and sharing task details with other members via Teams.
It could be improved in terms of providing more details to individual tasks/cards, dashboarding, and export capabilities.
VU
Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology (Information Technology and Services company, 10,001+ employees)
Microsoft Planner is the project management software my small business has been looking for for quite awhile. Considered using Microsoft Project but it is too complex and not suited for the small projects we do and the type of projects we do. Microsoft Planner is the perfect project planning solution software for our needs because it is easy to learn, easy to use, and quick to setup.
Pros
Syncs with Microsoft 365 seamlessly
Simple but very useful interface
Has an app that syncs to mobile phones
Planner Tasks can be an app in Microsoft Teams
Cons
Be able to find where the Planner data is kept. Is it in SharePoint? If so, where?
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft Planner is best suited for small businesses that need an easy to use project planning software solution that is quick to setup and not complicated to use. Microsoft Planner is useful for small businesses that don't need all the complexities and steps that Microsoft Project requires in order to use it.
