Microsoft Launches Office 365 Planner For Project Management

News
By published

If you work in a large group across numerous projects, you may be familiar with project management software like Basecamp and Trello. Microsoft is now rolling out a preview of its project management solution, called Planner, to Office 365 customers in its First Release Program.

Microsoft announced Office 365 Planner in September and explained its visual approach to organizing workflows. Planner divides overarching goals and plans into separate "Boards," with each task represented by a card. The tool also use charts to show progress on tasks and can be used to organize Office attachments. The service also integrates existing Office 365 groups so you can hit the ground running.

MORE: The Best Laptops for Business and Productivity

Office 365 will start rolling out to First Release customers today. Microsoft's blog says that it expects "to make Planner generally available to all eligible Office 365 commercial and education customers in 2016."

Microsoft's First Release program lets users try out the latest releases and provide feedback to Microsoft. It allows for administrators to stratify who gets to try new features first or provide them to an entire organization.

Planner was previously being worked on under the code name "Highlander." In June, Microsoft completed its acquisition of to-do app Wunderlist, and in time we'll see if its capabilities will be built into something like Planner.

Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew is a contributing writer at Laptop Mag. His main focus lies in helpful how-to guides and laptop reviews, including Asus, Microsoft Surface, Samsung Chromebook, and Dell. He has also dabbled in peripherals, including webcams and docking stations. His work has also appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, PCMag, Kotaku, and Complex. He fondly remembers his first computer: a Gateway that still lives in a spare room in his parents' home, albeit without an internet connection. When he’s not writing about tech, you can find him playing video games, checking social media and waiting for the next Marvel movie.