Plan it like a pro presentation materials

Use the Office365.com URL to access all your Microsoft apps.

To purchase a Microsoft Project Online license, please complete this form:

https://software.uconn.edu/microsoft-project-online-order-form/

Microsoft Viva – Planner Tips & Tricks:

https://learning.cloud.microsoft/detail/6426466c-250b-4bd6-ba21-abfec040beaa

Microsoft Viva – Power Automate:

Power Automate Essential Training

Specific Power Automate that I found to base my import script on:

https://tomriha.com/how-to-import-tasks-from-excel-into-planner-with-power-automate/

This zip file can be used to import the flow I created for the session.

Below are the steps I took to create my PowerAutomate flow. This may be hard to follow without images, so refer back to the tomriha.com link above as he outlines some of these details with images.

Spreadsheet must have 3 columns named: Task name, Assigned to, Description
Go to "Insert" tab and add "table" from ribbon that contains all your data on the worksheet
Open PowerAutomate and show the flow.
- To create new flow, follow these steps:
  - Manually trigger flow then hit create button
  - Add an action: search for excel and choose "List rows present in table"
  - Sign in if you haven't already then set
    - Location=OneDrive for Business
    - Document Library=OneDrive
    - File=<filename>
    - Table=Table1
    - If you are using dates, under advanced parameters set
      - DateTime Format = ISO 8601
  - Add an action and search "apply to each"
    - Select an output = body/value
    - Click inner + sign and search "create a task"
    - Set Group Id=Tech Day 2025
    - Set Plan Id=Generic Onboarding
    - Title click lightning bolt and select "Task name" column
    - Under advance parameters select assigned user ids
      - Click lightning bolt and select "Assigned to" column
    - Notice there is no description!
    - Click + sign below create a task still inside apply to each loop and search for "update task details"
    - Set Task Id= type / slash (do this twice or list won't show) and expand list to see 42 more and planner "Id" option
    - Set Description by clicking lightning bolt and choosing column named Description
    - Save the flow

My presenter notes…:

Templates

The idea for this section was for folks with repetitive tasks, that's more complicated than a breadbox, that needs to be done with some frequency. The example that jumped to mind for me was onboarding employees.
Now, in doing the preliminary research for this presentation, I came across Planner templates. Marketing materials got sent out based on this 2 minute cursory search. However, they are not what I was expecting, and as you'll see, certainly not what you think they are! But with some perseverance and flexibility I think there's a passable work around…
Obviously the benefit of using a quote unquote template is the reusability.
Hit "New Plan" button
Hit "See all templates >" button
We, as end users of Planner, have no way to create a template and get it onto this screen for selection!
Additionally, we as end users have no way to modify any of these templates. And frankly, they aren't very good. I found, the couple of times I tried to use them I ended up completely deleting or changing everything about them.
So I'm going to go back and choose the "Basic" plan from scratch.
Here's the hack…: I am thinking to start the name with "TEMPLATE - "
- This will be your base plan that you will copy over again and again
IMPORTANT: You must add it to the group - If you do not, you cannot copy it to duplicate it in the future!!
Back out to "My plans" screen and show difference in drop down menu between two plan types
Selecting the group will make it available to everyone in the group with no further steps, however they can edit your template too!
The choice and or hard part
- If you chose the hard way, you must train everyone to work only on the active copies of the plan. Don't touch the "TEMPLATE - "
- The other way, and perhaps better option: You could save the "template" in a small group with you and your supervisor. Then when you go to save the copy, save it to another group that has more members in it that will be doing the work on each plan!
Show how to Copy Plan and which options to check off as you go to save it
Hopefully Microsoft offers a better way to do this in the future. They do add features all the time. But for now I think these are your 2 best options for creating reusable templates in Planner.
Q&A???

AI Generated Plans

Much like the first section on Templates, this ended up being a bit of a mixed bag but I got to a pretty good place I think. I don't expect anyone to remember all this, just to know it is possible and with a bit of work you can get a pretty cool outcome.
Show how get to CoPilot and PowerAutomate via http://office365.com
Open up CoPilot and talk about using the prompt to get successively closer to what is needed by running steps 1 - 6
- Step 4 is based on the actual ITS process. So, if you have a PDF, or a Word doc, you can convert that to a spreadsheet of tasks and use that as the basis for your plan.
This is where I got stuck. No matter what I asked, CoPilot would not create the plan for me outright. It cited security reasons. Go figure!
So this is where my perseverance kicked in!
Then manually run it by using the "test" button - sign in - then run
Sometimes assignments will pop on the screen for its.planner.techday@uconn.edu, sometimes not.
Show the tasks in the undefined bucket on Planner and drag and drop them into other buckets
Q&A - Josh Jones is gave a presentation earlier today on PowerAutomate, hopefully you got to attend.

Project differences when you have a "Microsoft Project Online" license

How many here are familiar with Waterfall and/or Agile project management methodologies?

Quick recap for those who don't:

Waterfall is more linear approach. Traditional, fixed, approach. A project progresses through regimented phases. It’s best suited for projects with fixed scope and well-understood requirements.

Agile, is iterative and adaptive. Work is divided into chunks called sprints. These sprints allow for continuous modifications to the project as you move to completion. Agile is better suited for projects where requirements are a bit fuzzy or you know they will change as time passes.

Try and keep these in the back of your mind as you look at the differences in the following screens.

The other thing to keep in mind is there are 2 types of plans… one is the licensed plan and one is a basic plan.
Top bar differences:
- Basic Screen: "Basic access" indicator at the top of the plan by the plan name
- Basic screen: Grid/Board/Charts (I'll skip the charts as it is self-explanatory)
  - Note: Schedule is missing from the basic view once you change a plan to advanced
- Licensed screen: Grid/Board/Timeline(instead of Schedule)/Charts/People/Goals/Assignments
- Basic screen: Grid
  - Visual differences are minimal
  - Cannot make a subtask/promote a task
  - Cannot add/remove a dependency
  - Effort tracking
  - Cannot drag items up or down to reorder them
- Basic screen: Board views are basically the same
  - Note you can't easily see what a parent task is in the board view - have to go into the card and look at the upper left link
- Licensed: Show "Timeline" tab
  - Biggest miss is the timeline if using planner in a waterfall style
  - Agile style works a bit more easily as you can drag and drop in the buckets
- Licensed: Show "Assignment" tab work around by filtering by assignment
Paid version gives Sprints as well
In a nutshell - no premium license means
- you cannot deal with promoting/sub tasking
- Drag and drop tasks in grid view
- Add/remove dependencies
- view the advanced options like the timeline and assignments
- This is probably fine for contributors of a project, but not for managers of a project
- $65/year and renews every July 1st
- https://software.uconn.edu/microsoft-project-online-order-form/