Microsoft Planner is presented as a solution to organize teamwork with intuitive, collaborative, visual task management. With it, users can create Kanban boards using task cards with files, checklists, and labels. Users can collaborate in Planner and Microsoft Teams and check visual status charts—all in the Microsoft cloud.
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Remember the Milk
Score 7.3 out of 10
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Remember the Milk is a task management and to-do list application from the company of the same name headquartered in San Francisco.
There are a few examples where MS Planner would be suitable for employees at a mature organization. In my opinion, if you have Outlook or Teams, you already have built-in calendars and to-do lists. If you need a project management tool, you have two options: either pay for MS Project or use an alternative tool like Monday, Asana, or Jira. Regardless, their free versions are much more sophisticated than Microsoft's (MS Planner). Any team wishing to put together a halfway-decent project management board will need to look elsewhere, as MS Planner is only suitable for a personal to-do list.
I think Remember the Milk is a great tool for managing tasks and information. However, it depends on what the person is looking for. If you are looking for just a simple task management tool without any bells and whistles, this may be a lot, as it has a lot of advanced features (and even more if you go pro). If you are looking for a more robust task management tool with the option to add priorities, tags, categories, and assign tasks to others, this may be more suited for this. It is also helpful for managing lists like shopping lists or project lists.
Would be nice to see a calendar view instead of a list view
Permissions aren't configurable, anyone can delete any task at any time and there is no recycle bin
Notifications aren't great, you have to be attached as an owner to a task to see comments and be notified of changes, and even then notifications aren't shown for a lot of things
It is a very useful tool that brings teams in sync with one another. The integration with other Microsoft products makes it an obvious choice because you don't have to purchase a license for a completely different tool that doesn't have cross-functional capabilities with the software you already use on a daily basis.
The board-and-bucket layout makes it easy to organize tasks, track progress, and prioritize work at a glance, even for first-time users. I also appreciate how Planner seamlessly integrates with tools like Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint, enabling users to collaborate, schedule tasks, and access their plans without needing to switch platforms. I also like how it’s accessible not only on desktops, but also on mobile devices.
Many areas of the company still use Trello to organize their activities and tasks, but gradually Microsoft Planner must replace the activities. Users are often "attached" to familiar technologies, but Office 365 takes advantage of the more organized use of the tools. This year we will not renew the Trello contract.
Google Tasks is a much simpler task-keeping interface, and I use it for the most important tasks on my phone. It does not offer tags, priorities, or distinguish between lists/tasks. It does let me star tasks, but does not let me determine the priority levels. I can also move tasks to different lists, but they can be hard to manage if there are too many, so I generally do not use this feature. For me, Google Tasks is ideal for very simple "I need to write this down" type tasks that are of high priority. It is not a good brain dumping tool because tasks can easily get lost. This is more for those nagging tasks that I want to do and make sure there is an appropriate alarm for. It also integrates well with my Android home screen. However, when I have lots of tasks I want to categorize, or I do want to do more of a brain dump type thing, I think Remember the Milk is far better. I can have more control over priorities, tags, assigning tasks to others, and other robust features.
In my experience, productivity is negatively impacted because assigning subtasks aren't clear on Microsoft Planner
Managers aren't able to track direct reports' tasks across multiple boards -- leading to poor visibility for us
Notifications aren't always sent to inbox, so you rely on people's own project management skills to follow the communication on tasks they're assigned to. In my experience, this leads to missed deadlines impacting customer relationships.
