Ms teams create checklist

• January 19, 2021

Microsoft Planner Templates: Step-by-Step Guide

You and your team complete dozens of tasks every day. There are many apps out there to help you structure your to-do lists and track your progress. AtSalesTimwe love Planner, as do thousands of other users around the world. And today well talk about how to improveourefficiencybyusingMicrosoft Planner Templates for Microsoft Teams.

What is Microsoft Planner?

Here, your tasks are displayed in the form of cards, which you can structure according to the stages of the process, goals, or another hierarchy that suits you. One of the great features is the ability to add any content directly to the task card. Deadlines,assigned person, files, notes, and more.

Lets look at the Planner functionality with a specific example.

How does Planner work?

Lets say you are a project manager. Your primary responsibilities include tracking project dynamics and meeting deadlines. For these functions, the Planner isyourindispensable assistant.

You open the web-version of the app right in your Office 365 space. [You can also download the app on any of your devices] Since Planner is one of the Office 365 products, you can interact here with any member of your team or across the entire organization.

Okay, youvecreateda new plan, whatsnext? Then you start adding cards with tasks, structuring them, and quickly transferring them from one board to another.

Open any card and you will seemanyadditional functions.Here you can set a deadline for the task.

In addition, assignany person from your teamfor this task.Your team member [or members, if you choose several people] will receive anotificationevery time a new task is assigned.

But how to make sure that the person understands exactly the essence of the task and will complete it correctly?To do this, you can easily add any content that will be displayed directly on the card.

Label

What do thecoloredicons on the card mean? They help youcategorize tasks and make them easier for your team members to find. For example, atSalesTim, our marketing team uses labels to represent a content type. For me personally, this is very convenient I quickly understand what this is about: an article for our blog, a new video, or a social post.

Checklist

Oftentimes, a single task involves several stages. To be sure that the projectmemberdoesnt lose sight of anything, you can add achecklistwith additional subtasks. Thus, you will improve the efficiency of execution

Attachments

Here, you can share content. You or another project participant can attach a document using SharePoint,uploada file from a device, oradd alink. So, you can work together on documents andeditthem online.

Notes and Comments

In the process of completing a task edits, comments, and discussions may occur. You can easily discuss the whole process with colleagues right on the task card.

Manage Planner

We figured out the functionality of the task compilation. What else? For effective work, you can choose different views of your Planner.

Board view a standard Planner board, where it is convenient to view all your teams tasks and drag and drop cards

Schedule view will allow you to navigate depending on the deadline and will help your team draw up a work plan for the coming days. Overdue tasks will be highlighted in red and completed tasks in green.

Charts view allows you, as a project manager, toanalyzethe dynamics of project development. You will be able to visually assess the number of overdue tasks, completed, in progress, and those that have not yet begun

Microsoft Teams with Planner

Whats great about Office 365 products is the abilityto collaborate. You can read more about the Planners integration options with other Office 365 products here. Today well talk about Planner with Microsoft Teams.

Lets say youve created a team for a new project. You add many channels depending onyourgoals andtheessence of the project. Next, you need toadd Tabs with content to simplify and structure your work. As you may know, here you can add any application available in the Microsoft store as atab, including Planner. Letslookat what opportunitiesopenwhen Microsoft Teams and Planner collaborate.

AllPlannerfeaturesin Teams

After adding an existing plan or building a new one, you will have access to all Planner functionality right in Teams. You can manage Planner without losing functionality manageboards, track deadlines, work on files without leaving Teams. You can evenstart a new conversationoravideo meeting right from the Plannertab. This improves the work of the project team and the interaction of colleagues with each other.

Manage notifications

Each time, the employee will receive a notification directly in the Activity Feed if there have been changes in his tasks card. New tasks, attachments, new comments, etc. Easily stay informed and dont miss out on project news.

Microsoft Planner Templates in Teams

Alright, we figured out the functionality ofPlanner and how to connect it to the Microsoft Teams environment. But you still spend a lot of time creating a new Planner. You manually drive in each new task, re-attach files, and structure the process. In large organizations, doing many projects at the same time can be maddening. And instead of increasing your productivity, youwastetime on repetitive work. Is there a way out? Of course, for this, we suggest using the Microsoft Planner Templates.

Why Planner Templates?

Save Time

Execution time is a key indicator of project success. This is especially important when you need to quickly launch a new project. With the Planner Template, you can easily reduce the time spent creating a board for upcoming tasks. That way, you stay focused on thereally importantKPIs, and at the same time, you dont lose the quality of work.

Improve Processes

Streamline your workflows quickly and efficiently. With the Planner Template, you can work more efficiently at the start of a new project. This is especially useful for processes of the same type with the same structure. In a few seconds, you will create a working environment for your team with ready-made boards and cards

EnhanceEnd-Users Experience

Oftentimes, in multitasking mode, unstructured boards with tasks can wreak havoc. Your colleagues create tasks without special rules orguidelines, and instead of improving productivity, you end up with clutter and missing out on important steps. With Planner Templates, your project team will receivethe pre-built workspace, where everything is clear and standard.

How to build Planner Template in Teams?

Copy Existing Planner

One use case for templates is to simply copy an existing plan. How does it work?

For example, you createyourPlanner for a new project once. The next time a new project comes up, you need to re-create the team. And instead of manually adding a new Planner to the required Tab, you can choose the add an existing Plan function. Just select the required Planner Template from the list and add it to the new command in one click.

Thus, you can create many Planner Templates for different purposes, copy them into new commands, and optimize your work very easily.

Microsoft Teams Template with Planner

We suggest another more efficient option copying Planner with Microsoft Teamstemplates. This technology can help youtoimprove collaborative processes across your organization. Let us tell you more about this.

With Microsoft TeamsTemplates, you can easily create dozens of team templates for your organization. Thus, without losing end-users experience, you can structure your workspace in Teams,savetime, avoid duplication, andmess of teams. Andwhat about the Planner? Lets see how it works

How does it work?

Letsanalyzethe steps,based on the example of the project managers functionality.

Create an Original Team

First, you createan Original Team forproject management. You already know the structure of working with projects in your organization, so you can easily create the channels that will be required in the work on the project.

You can use our example wherethere are different channels, such as:

• Budget
• Contractors
• Planning
• Business Cases

You can create not only standard but also private channels for collaboration on important andhigh-securedfiles.

Next, you need to add content. Here, you add the Planner as a new Tab as usual. Usingallits features listed above, you can create a clear structure with to-dotasks andboards.

What else? You can also add anyother App. For example, SharePoint, Yammer, Power BI, Forms, and more. Plus, you can integrate any 3rd party App like Salesforce

And that is not all! Your projects can have various documentation, guidelines, checklists, contract templates, and much more. These documents are used on any project in your organization!Upload them toyour teamand organize them into folders. Thus, the project team will have easy access to important files on any project.

Add it as atemplate

Okay, the team is ready, whats next? Next, add thisOriginal Teamas atemplate.

At this stage, you will be able to manage a lot of settings as well asMicrosoftGovernance:

Static or Dynamic Naming Convention with suffix and prefix. Based on Azure AD Data, this will help you to create the automated rules for your teams name, avoid duplication and mess

Approval Workflows allows you to define if a particularuser can create the teams from your template or dont

With TargetingAudience,you can define who can see your templates in the templatecatalog. Based on Azure AD Data, users can see different Templates depending on their level of access.

Using Permanent Membership when a new team is created from your template, someone in your organization will be added automatically as an owner or member

Enforce Security Setup to manage team privacyand membership policies

Add Template to your own TemplatesCatalog

After saving, the Project Management Template will be added to yourownTemplatesCatalog. There are dozens of Teamstemplates stored here to help your organizationaccording toyour needs. Project Management, Sales Deal Room, Crisis Management, Departments Collaboration, and much more.

Use it!

Alright, everything is ready to use! The next time a new project comes up, you, as a manager, will notneed tocreate teamsfrom scratch. You just select the requiredtemplate,and the fully provisioned team will appear in a matter of seconds.

What will be copied?Standard andprivatechannels,tabs withapps,files andfolders,settings,andmembers.And look at this!The tab with the Planner is also here.

So, in just a few steps, you can scale it across your entire organization. A clear and structured workspace, Strong Governance rules without burdening the IT Department, savingtimeand improving the productivity of your colleagues

Sounds interesting? Talk toourcolleagues to learn more about theSalesTimApp and startto useit for free.

By the way, are you worried about protecting your data? Our applicationhas been M365 App certified!