Can we create a Planner Board without a connected SharePoint Site?

[stephanieserblowski]

Is it possible to create a planner board without creating an attached SharePoint site?  Currently, when we create planner boards to organize projects it automatically creates a SharePoint site that we don't need.  Leaders like to use the Planner boards for projects but we now have hundreds of SharePoint, there must be a way to disable this automatic creation of SharePoint sites?  Would love your help :) #Planner #SharePoint

[#2]

No, when you create a Plan you are creating an Office 365 Group behind the scenes what means a SPO site is going to be created. This just by design

[#3]

@Juan Carlos González Martín thanks.  I don't understand why it would be designed that way.  Planner board is such a great tool for projects but we don't need hundreds of SharePoint sites.  What would the best practice be here?  Would we train leaders only to use the planner board with certain projects and not others? Is there another Microsoft tool I could recommend instead of Planner for organizing their projects?  I know they like to link the tasks to Microsoft To Do as well.  

[#4]

Hi @stephanieserblowski One reason for the SharePoint sites with Planner is for storing any files that are attached to a Planner card.  You'll get the rich SharePoint document feature set (version history, co-authoring, etc.) for those files.

[#5]

@Deleted thanks!  Then perhaps we need to change our mindset regarding number of SharePoint sites.  From an company perspective how can we best manage the number of SharePoints and is the "new normal" hundreds of SharePoint sites?  Should we create a process around when and how these sites are deleted after a project is completed in 1-2 quarters.  Do IT then transfer the saved data out of the site?  What are best practices other companies are using?  

[#6 · Accepted solution]

What you can do is utilize sub plans. If these leadership all work as a Team you can just create a sub plan mainly in such a "Leadership Team" Microsoft Team. Then you can have Channels per project, and when you create a Tab with Planner you get a sub plan basically. This way you have one Group, One SharePoint site, and multiple plans.

It all depends on security around it. If it's usually the same group of people then create a Team around those people and then have sub plans for them. You can even have multiple plans per channel etc. Since you are limited to 200 plans depending on the amount of projects you go through it Might be an good idea to create channels for "Categories of Projects etc."

Anyway, I don't like the whole SharePoint site / group for every planner plan, because not only are you getting those sties, you are getting Objects in your Global Address list and Azure AD as well for each plan. It can be a mess. This is why I turn Group creation off, so people cannot create Teams / Plans / SharePoint Team sites. But once they have a Team (as stated above) they have the ability to create sub plans, so it works in both ways to keep your organization directory / SharePoint clean, while still giving some ability to use multiple planners.

Hopefully this ramble made sense :).

[#7]

@Chris Webb this is really helpful!  With the channels option we can have additional planner boards without additional SharePoint sites and keep things a bit cleaner as projects start and stop.  Thanks so much!

[#8]

@Chris Webb can we add planner boards to private Team channels?  We can't figure out how, it seems Microsoft does not offer the option of a planner board in a private teams channel which seems strange.  Why would the whole company need access to view everyone's teams channels and planner boards?  Or is it only possible with public team channels?

[#9]

Yes, you can add to Private Team Channels, however you cannot use the Planner tab in a Private channel(lock next to channel) in a private / public Team. You should have a Private Team for your group of people that work together, then channels, with plans. You can create multiple sub plans in a Team they don't have to be assigned to a channel itself, the container is the Team, and anyone in that Team has access to the plans inside that container.

The further private 'Private Channels' break the Team(Office 365 group) permission mold which Planner doesn't support. You can use a website link to add an existing plan, but that's all you can do with Private channels.

[#10]

@Chris Webb thanks you have been so helpful!