What is Microsoft Planner Used For?

My Windows Insider friend asked me another question that I wanted to share:

“What kind of planning is Microsoft Planner used for?”

Short answer: Many things, but mostly work that involves a group or team working together.

What You Can Do with Microsoft Planner:

Create a Plan.
Organize tasks within a Plan onto Boards.
Assign ownership of Tasks.
Organize Tasks into Boards that can be Grouped into Buckets.
Look at Charts to see an at-a-glance status update of a Plan.
Look at the Planner Hub Dashboard to see a big picture overview of the progress on multiple Plans.
See a list of all the tasks assigned to you across various Plans.

What is Planner?

I find it is easier to explain what I think it is not when people ask me “what is Planner?”

In my opinion:

Planner is not designed to be a tool for an individual to manage their individual tasks. **
Planner is not designed to be a tool for a Project Manager to use for Project, Portfolio, or Resource Management. **
Microsoft Planner is a web-based tool designed for a group of people within an organization to work together to organize their plans and teamwork on various ad-hoc projects.

Here is a great diagram that Loryan Strant (@TheCloudMouth) shared in his “First experiences with Microsoft To-Do” post on the RE: Office 365 site that illustrates the differences very clearly:

** Notice how I was careful to say “Planner is not designed for…” and avoid saying “Planner is not…”?

Just because Planner is a tool designed for a group to collaborate, it actually has some great applications for the individual!