Strategic Missing Capabilities in the new Microsoft Planner (Enterprise Perspective)
The Present State of Microsoft Planner’s Vision Enterprises want one coherent work-management layer in Microsoft 365 Microsoft’s ambition is to merge To Do, Planner, and Project for the Web into a single platform with Copilot, Goals, unified List/Board/Timeline views, and templates The direction is sound: reduce fragmentation and tool sprawl, standardize data, and give leaders a clean and solid portfolio picture while teams execute in familiar interfaces. In an environment where all employees have access to the same tool, are already included in the resource pool and integration options are basically unlimited, this is a step, that everyone was looking forward to. Nonetheless, the quip that “Microsoft abandoned MS Project 20 years ago” is a joke, but it reflects a real anxiety: if the new Planner displaces familiar scheduling experiences without enterprise-grade controls, PMOs will feel left alone again and disengage, in presence of abundant alternatives. Planner will not replace Microsoft Project, Primavera, or other detailled scheduling tools; those remain essential for deep dependencies, resource leveling, and baselining. Planner’s highest-value role is the management and aggregation layer above them: align goals, normalize metadata, and expose cross-program status. Simplicity matters, but simplicity cannot mean missing capability. If essential functions are absent, governance, traceability, and portfolio visibility suffer, and organizations turn to external tools. Following is a list of core functionality that is currently missing and was needed about a month ago. Current Structural Gaps Date logic too rigid for management use No independent target/due date field; planning often hinges on Start/Finish + Duration, which limits top-down milestone control Custom fields capped at 10 per plan Insufficient for enterprise metadata models and standardized portfolio reporting Maximum task duration of 1,250 days Constricts representation of multi-year initiatives and capital programs No enterprise-grade audit trail Lacks comprehensive, exportable change logs with retention controls for compliance Flat responsibility model Multiple assignees exist, but no roles such as Owner, Reviewer, Approver; no RACI support Insufficient hierarchy and dependencies for roll-ups Summary/sub-tasks exist, but cross-plan links and robust multi-plan aggregation are weak Group-based permissions only Sharing tied to M365 Groups/Teams; no fine-grained task- or field-level permissions; no simple view-only for externals Custom fields lack hyperlink behavior No URL field type; links in text fields are often not clickable for seamless navigation Inconsistent text capture and formatting Notes lack reliable rich-text structure; long entries are hard to read No page breaks or robust formatting for long descriptions Executive-level narratives and governance documentation become unwieldy Limited standardization across plans No global library for reusable custom fields, bucket structures, or templates at tenant/portfolio level Required Enhancements for Enterprise Readiness Flexible date logic Allow target/due dates independent of Start/Finish; add constraints, buffers, alerts, and escalation rules Expanded metadata framework Raise the custom-field limit; add field types (URL, Person, Multi-select), required fields, validation rules, and global field templates Enterprise auditability Provide full change history with export, retention policies, filters by field/user, and API access Role-aware assignments (RACI) Support roles (Owner, Doer, Reviewer, Approver), secondary ownership, and role-based views in people and reports Portfolio-grade structure Enable cross-plan dependencies, milestone roll-ups, program-level summaries, consolidated capacity and risk views Granular access control Introduce view-only sharing, external access without group membership, and task/field-level ACLs to protect sensitive data Hyperlink-enabled fields Add a URL type and clickable rendering in text fields, with previews and allow-lists for approved domains Robust editor for management communication Paragraphs, lists, headings, tables, code/quote blocks, and clean print/PDF output for formal documentation Reusable enterprise templates Tenant-wide libraries for custom fields, buckets, and workflows; versioning and approval flows for governed rollout Reliable data layer A standardized Power BI dataset, webhooks/events, incremental exports, and stable keys for multi-plan, multi-tenant analytics Scaling for long-horizon work Lift or mitigate the 1,250-day limit for leaf tasks and provide guidance or rules for multi-year programs Bottom line Planner can succeed as the enterprise management layer if it remains simple but gains the capabilities listed above. One does not work without the other. If Microsoft does not deliver these functions, enterprises will continue using Project, Primavera, or other scheduling tools — while adopting third-party platforms for governance and portfolio visibility. This would directly undermine Planner’s goal of becoming the unified standard within Microsoft 365. Please, do us a favor and spare organizations from having to implement yet another third-party tool. (And yes: I am aware of multiple enterprises that are in the process of testing and implementating different tools, presicely because of this missing capability)
Transitioning to Microsoft Planner and retiring Microsoft Project for the web - Dataverse Data
Hi, I have received some inquiries from my customers who are using Microsoft Project for the Web and integrating it with Dataverse through Power Automate. They are applying updates directly to Dataverse records via automated flows. Could you please clarify whether this transitioning has any impact on how the information is stored or managed in Dataverse? Thank you very much for your support. Best regards, José Arancibia
Planner Hyperlinks via Flow's Update Task Details
Greetings all, I have multiple planners that I administer. It is a common desire to have dynamically created hyperlinks added to the planner board tasks that take you to the SharePoint List's line item that was used for creating the task. I have used a power automate flow (solution) for creating said task and hyperlinks from line items. I have used power automate's update task details action to add those dynamic hyperlinks. However, for some unknown reason it also doubles the size of the card with a huge hyperlink to open the task (although the original card hyperlink still works). Why? You can see examples of it in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCtXprXyO40 at the 13:41 mark. The Planning and Executing columns have tasks with these huge unnecessary task opening links added. Why? And how can a person get rid of those since it seems to be a built in function of the flow action OR the Planner to have that? Having all that extra space taken for no reason just limits the number of tasks that can be on view at any time. I have researched and found blurbs about utilizing an Graph API tool but I'm not granted server access to implement such a thing. Is there another way around this that can be done to have said hyperlinks that DON'T create those huge extra links that are totally unnecessary? Thanks for any assistance on the matter, McGeeksCan we get Schedule view back?
When showing off Planner to a group of people today they noticed on an older, different plan the Schedule view, and really liked it. Of course, what I was showing them doesn't have that option anymore. Is it possible to to get this view back or if necessary, a "monthly" option within the "Timeline" view? ThanksAbility to send an email to Planner and create a Task
Is this on the roadmap? Our organization is starting to lose the battle of using Planner instead of Trello, pretty much because of the sole feature that Trello allows you to send an email to a specific email address and it will automatically create a Task. It is quite a simple model: Email Subject = Task Title Email Body = Task Description Email Attachments = Task Attachments This would be a massive win for adoption. Looks like this is the entry with the most votes, but there are about 100 of them that individually are asking for the same/similar functionality: https://planner.uservoice.com/forums/330525-microsoft-planner-feedback-forum/suggestions/13076007-ability-to-add-email-as-planner-taskIs there no way to 'Group by Bucket' in 'My Tasks' ?
When I go to the 'My tasks' section, I don't seem to be able to group by bucket. What is the point of having buckets if I can't sort my tasks by bucket? I don't want to sift through dozens of my colleague's tasks just to find mine, that is the point of having the 'My tasks' section. As my Planner gets more and more tasks, I am finding it harder to manage.
Turning off Email notifications....
Hi there, we have users that complaine about too much EMails send by the Planner App in teams. For instance, they do receive an email every time someone adds a comment to a task, where they are members. And they claim that this is only since last week or so. They want that to be turned off. But I cannot find where it could be located? Can anyone help. Thanks a Million BertholdBackup & Recovery of Planner
We have many staff using Planner (largely in Teams) for project management - it's a great tool! However, we can't find any way to back up or restore a Planner without use of a 3rd party backup/recovery tool. Can anyone offer current thoughts/suggestions on the best way to assure solid backup/recovery options for Planner?
