The first step to planning is to clearly define your goals. Taking a few minutes to put your goals into writing will be very beneficial in helping you to plan for your success. Once you have defined your goal, it is time to brainstorm on the tasks that are required to complete your project. Makes it easier to plan out not just a weekly calendar, but a monthly calendar. Prioritize your tasks. “We all have a million things to get done every single week,” writes Sarah Sharkey previously for Calendar. “However, if we just leave it all on one big list, it can be difficult to determine what is actually important.”.

In this article:

Free Pre Task Plan Templates

How do I turn off Planner for my organization?

When Microsoft Planner is included in your subscription, it's automatically turned on for everyone in your organization. If you want to control which people in your organization have licenses for Planner, for example, if your organization isn't ready to begin using Planner, you can remove or assign Planner licenses by using Office 365 PowerShell.

To control which users have Planner licenses, follow the instructions in How to use Office 365 PowerShell to manage Microsoft Planner licenses. When running the scripts in Office 365 PowerShell, the DisabledPlans value for Microsoft Planner is PROJECTWORKMANAGEMENT.

Note

Removing a user's Planner license only prevents them from navigating to Planner using the Planner tile. Users in your organization without licenses to Planner can still create and modify plans at the direct Planner URL: tasks.office.com. You can remove users' ability to create plans at tasks.office.com (see How do I manage who can create a plan?), but you can't remove their ability to see and modify existing plans at tasks.office.com at this time.

How do I manage who can create a plan?

Every time a person in your organization creates a plan in Planner, the plan's list of members automatically form a Microsoft 365 group. So to control who creates a plan, you need to control who can create Microsoft 365 Groups.

Admins can control who can create a Group by using Azure Active Directory (AD) PowerShell. Follow the instructions in Control who can create Microsoft 365 Groups to:

1. Disable Group creation for all users in your organization.
2. Allow specific users to create groups (for example, all Planner users) while group creation is disabled.

Important

• Disabling group creation for your organization will affect users of other Microsoft services that need group creation, such as Exchange Online. Make sure to account for all people in your organization that need the ability to create groups when you configure this setting.
• Controlling who can create Microsoft 365 Groups only prevents users from creating new plans. They will still be able to see and modify existing plans at tasks.office.com.

How do I change the domain that Planner email notifications come from?

If you are interested in having your notification emails come from a custom email domain, follow the steps described in Multi-domain support for Microsoft 365 Groups - Admin help.

Can people outside of my organization get invited to participate in a plan?

Yes. Guest access allows you to invite people who aren't part of your Microsoft 365 organization to participate in a plan. Guest users will have limited functionality, but can perform the following tasks:

• Create and delete tasks and buckets
• Edit task fields
• Attach a file or link to a task, if given additional permission
• Edit the plan name

For more information, see Guest access in Microsoft Planner.

Can people in my organization use Planner if they don't have an Exchange Online mailbox?

• If you are using Microsoft Planner in a hybrid environment in which your users may have Exchange Online or on-premises mailboxes, note that:
• Planner has full functionality when your user has a product license that includes Exchange OnlinePlanner users without Exchange Online may have the following issues:
  • Users may have issues with viewing or adding comments to a task.
  • Users may have issues viewing their favorite plans in Planner.

For more information, see KB article 3169632.

How do I make sure all my users can get emails for Planner?

In Planner, users can choose to receive emails when tasks are assigned to them or when tasks are due soon or late (see Choose whether to have email sent directly to you). However, email will only be sent to users who have a product license that includes Exchange Online. Users at organizations using on-premises Exchange Server or hybrid configurations may not receive all Planner emails.

How do I turn off Outlook calendar sync in Planner for my organization?

Outlook calendar sync in Microsoft Planner allows users to view their Planner schedule in Outlook. This feature is turned on automatically in Planner. If you want to turn this off for your organization, follow the steps in Turn off Outlook calendar sync in Planner for your organization.

How do I install or activate Planner for my organization?

Planner comes with these subscriptions:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard
• Office 365 E1
• Office 365 E3
• Office 365 E5
• Microsoft 365 A1

For more on these subscriptions, see business plans, enterprise plans, or education plans. If your current subscription doesn't include Planner, the only way to get Planner is to switch to a subscription that does.

Can I see who is already using Planner, or see a list of all the Planner sites?

You can see a list of all groups in the Microsoft 365 admin center, in the Groups section, and find out more detailed information about these groups using Microsoft 365 Reports in the admin center - Microsoft 365 Groups. Every group comes with a plan, but a list of plans and active usage of plans are not included in these reports right now.

How can I apply CA policies to the Planner iOS and Android apps?

To apply CA policies to the Planner iOS and Android apps, please make sure that CA policies are enabled for Exchange or SharePoint within Microsoft Intune in the Azure portal. Enabling CA policy for Planner alone (without policies enabled for Exchange or SharePoint) does not apply the policies for the Planner iOS and Android apps.

In life, “a goal without a plan is just a wish,” as the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said – and the same is even more true for business today. Businesses looking to prepare for success have put Agile methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban have come to the forefront of their planning and execution of tasks.

The biggest difficulty is often not the planning but choosing which of these three Agile variants to use. More than just choosing the right methodology to plan your tasks, you also need to pick one that helps you to best measure your team’s ongoing performance.

If you’re new to Agile methodology and feel confused about the differences between Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban, be sure to check out this post, which explains the fundamental differences between the three.

In this post, we’ll be exploring how Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban execute tasks and measure the resulting performance.

Planning Routines in Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban

A good plan can make or break a project – and having a planning routine in place can make the process easier to iterate. Broadly speaking, your planning should be a three-stage process, covering:

1. How work isexpected to progress over the course of a project
2. Whattasks should be executed in any given stage of a project
3. When planningsessions should take place as a project develops

In Scrum, planning is paramount and takes place frequently, mostcommonly at the beginning of each sprint. Any backlog items or tasks are addedhere, and work is done based on this plan.

In Kanban, flexibility is valued – which means no preciseplanning routines are required. Instead, team members are free to create theirown dynamic plans as backlog items and tasks are completed (demand planning),or as a code or product version is released (release/iteration planning).

In Scrumban, which allows for a mix of Scrum and Kanban methodologies, takes Kanban’s demand planning approach while simultaneously planning for new items and tasks to replace those completed using a Scrum approach.

Task Completion Estimation in Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumbnan

Task completion estimation is exactly what it sounds like: planning approximatelyhow much time is required to finish any given item or tasks on your backloglist.

In Scrum, estimations should be completed before the sprintbegins, with each item or task assigned a specific amount of time. When facedwith larger tasks, planners should split each item into smaller tasks. Whateverthe item or tasks is, the time allocated to completing should leave some roomfor delays.

In Kanban, estimation is not prized so highly – in fact, it’soptional. Team members work on their own initiative, pulling tasks from thebacklog as they go along. The flexibility of Kanban means that teams who dovalue planning can implement it if they choose (e.g., for predictability), orcreate items and tasks of a similar size to maintain a consistent workflow.

Scrumban follows a similar approach to Kanban regarding task completion estimation with no notable differences.

Adding New Items to Your Project with Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban

At this point, you may be asking how new items and tasks are added tothe project iteration list – once again, picking the right Agile methodologycan be important for your project’s eventual success.

In Scrum, new items and tasks can only be added at theplanning stage. If something is overlooked and only discovered during a sprint,it will have to wait until the next planning session. This rigidity can proveto be an issue for teams where new tasks and items are constantly coming in.

In Kanban, new items are simply added to your project as soon asthe space appears in a project queue, making this a good choice for projectswhere new and incoming tasks and items are a part of the working process.

Plan Your Tasks Worksheet

In Scrumban, you have a mix of both Scrum and Kanban, making for a more flexible arrangement that allows for more precise planning prior to a sprint – with the ability to add incoming tasks during.

Performance Metrics in Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban

One other important aspect of project management is judging the overallperformance of a project and particularly a team in completing the variousitems and tasks associated with that project.

In Scrum, your primary tool for analyzing performance metrics is the burndown chart. This chart can be used to show how much work is left within any given sprint at the end of each day, or even hour. In Eylean, a typical burndown chart looks like this:

In Scrumban, average lead cycle times are the most important performance metric.

Final Considerations when Choosing Scrum, Kanban, or Scrumban

Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban are effective tools that can help businessesof any size to boost their productivity. With that said, it is important toremember that they are just that: tools. More important than the tools isknowing your team’s strengths and weaknesses and leveraging the tool that willhelp them to deliver the best results.

Wondering which of these three Agile methodologies will work best for your team? Be sure to read this post, which reviews how Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban helps project managers to manage their teams in diverse areas, including roles, meetings, ownership, and ongoing improvement.

Try Eylean now: https://eylean.com/get-eylean-now/

Pre Task Planning Worksheet

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