Permission for users to create plans but not groups

[jamesbaxterARUK]

Hi there,

I am in the process of setting up microsoft teams for my department. I am very impressed with the tools on offer so far but I have hit a hurdle. I have been looking through the Microsoft Graph API to try to understand the relationships between the various objects (Plans, groups, teams, channels etc.) within office 365.

I understand that teams and groups share an ID and have a 1:1 correspondence. I also understand that this was at one point true for groups and plans but has since changed. My sysadmin does not want to allow users the ability to create plans as he believes that there must be an associated group which will be created simultaneously.

My team have no desire to create more groups but we would like to utilise multiple plans per group (so that we can have different plans for different channels in Teams). I was wondering if there is a way to allow users the ability to create plans owned by groups of which they are members but not allow the ability to create more groups?

TL;DR: Allow users to create plans owned by their groups but not groups?

This would be a fantastic help.

Best,

James

[#2]

AFAIK, there is not way to restrict Group creation in the way you have just described...to create a Plan the user needs:
1) Belong to a modern SPO site so he/she can create one or more plans linked to the Group site associated to the site.
2) Belong to a Microsoft Teams so he/she can create one or more plans linked to the Group site associated to the Team
3) Create new standalone Plans what means a Group is created behind the scenes

[#3]

I was describing:

"2) Belong to a Microsoft Teams so he/she can create one or more plans linked to the Group site associated to the Team".

Is it possible to allow permissions to create plans but not further groups in this case?

[#4]

Does anybody have any suggestions?

[#5]

No, not possible unfortunately! A plan always creates a 365 group!

Adam

[#6 · Accepted solution]

I think I have worked it out!

According to the Microsoft graph API:

• Groups and teams share an ID so have 1:1 correspondence
• Groups and plans don't share an ID. The group object owns a PlannerGroup object which contains a list of plans owned by the group. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/plannergroup?view=graph-rest-1.0 . This means that they have a many:1 correspondence
• Standalone plans quietly create a group and give it ownership of a single plan. That group could potentially still own more plans in the future.

By creating a plan through Microsoft Teams, you can create a plan without needing permission to create a group just as the API would suggest. I am not sure if this is due to a recent update or not but it is now working for me.

You need to create a new tab in a channel within a team and select planner, then create a new plan. This will automatically give ownership of the plan to the group associated with your team (with the same id as your team).

I'm guessing this bypasses a stage where you would need group permissions or something. I have checked and I still don't have permission to create groups so that is a good sign. Either way, I'm glad it works.

James

[#7]

Yes, this actually crossed my mind after my post! I’ll check this out

[#8]

I'm struggling with the same limitations. I have a team that is working on multiple iterative implementations for close in more than 20 business units in our company. We have separate channels for the purpose of managing communications related to each separate system build project. I created a plan template and I was hoping to use the copy plan function to replicate the set of tasks for each of the channels so we could track the progress of each build, but this does not appear to be possible. Annoying.

[#9]

@jamesbaxterARUK 
I figured out a kind of work around to get separate plans into channels within a group. It doesn't resolve the issue of creating a new group for each plan, but it DOES allow for us to update and view the plans that I have created in the same team and channels.

My project entails repeated builds of the same system module for around 20 business units. I created a plan template that works as a master set of tasks (so I don't have rebuild the plan each time) then I use the copy plan function to create the separate plan for each unit in our company. Then in Teams, I go to the channel for the build for the specific business unit and add a website tab and point the tab to the URL for the plan. This might not solve your problem, but it appears to be an adequate workaround for us until MS figures out that people might need to have more than one ongoing project their teams are working on at any given time.

[#10]

@DStefan 

Hi there,

Thanks for your response. I actually think they may have added the feature. If you use the tabs on a teams channel to create a new plan it creates a plan specific to the channel/group. I am not sure how to duplicate plans though, I haven't looked into it.

[#11]

@jamesbaxterARUK  That's weird because I see the option to make copies of a plan, but I do not see the option to add the plan to different groups or channels. Can you share a screen shot(s) of where you are seeing those options?

[#12]

This is not possible! you only have the option to copy a plan and with that create a new group

[#13]

@DStefan 

In teams, click the + to add a tab to a channel associated with the group you want to make a plan for:

Click planner

Create new plan

This allows you to create multiple plans per channel. Since there is only ever one group for a given channel this allows you multiple plans per group.  If this doesn't work for you perhaps your organisation hasn't given you these permissions, though that seems unlikely.

In terms of the microsoft graph api objects found here, groups can definitely have multiple plans associated with them. It is not a 1:1 relationship.

Good luck!

[#14]

@jamesbaxterARUK 

I played with that functionality in Teams, but as far as I was able to tell, there wasn't a way to copy plans without making mirror plans that didn't function independently.

For example, I created one plan that way, which I had hoped to use as a template and copy across the various channels. I added a Planner tab and then chose "Use existing plan within team". I was able to rename the plan. All of the tasks were there. I replicated this same process across 3 different channels. Unfortunately, when I checked the task complete on the plan in one channel, it checked the same task complete in every instance. Even though they had different names on the various channels, it was treating them all as the same plan.

[#15]

@DStefanOh! I see what you mean now. That is a pain. If you are authorised to use the API, you could use a get request:

See tasks in a plan

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/planner/plans/{id}/tasks

to get the tasks in json format, then I'd imagine there's some way to post them into a new plan.

Hope that helps a bit. Good luck