Project Planning with Microsoft – What Are Your Options?

1 – Background

At ClinOps Specialists, we have spent many years using the Desktop version of Microsoft Project to plan our projects. However, there were some downsides to this:
  • MS Project was not fully integrated with Microsoft 365.
    • It was not possible for multiple people to work on the same plan at once
    • There was no “autosave” feature when working on SharePoint/OneDrive
  • The MS Project software had to be downloaded onto each company computer, and the license was expensive.
    • Often only the Project Manager had access to MS Project, plans needed to be exported to Excel or PDF to be shared with the wider team
A web-based version of Project “Project for the web” was launched in 2019. This had limited functionality compared to the desktop MS Project and was not routinely adopted. In parallel with this, an alternative to MS Project, “Planner”, has been in development since 2016 but was not fully integrated into Microsoft 365 until June 2023. In August 2025, Microsoft announced that “Project for the web” was being retired and users were being directed to use Planner. The current version of Planner is fully integrated with Teams and Outlook and includes the AI tool Copilot. At ClinOps Specialists we have decided to take a leap and transition to using Planner. However, unlike with MS Project, there are a number of Planner levels and decisions to be made prior to use.

Contents

1 – Introduction

2 – Planner Levels

3 – Planner Outputs

4 – Conclusion

2 – Planner Levels

  • Microsoft To Do – included in all Microsoft 365 subscriptions
  • Basic Planner – included in most1 Microsoft 365 subscriptions
  • Planner Plan 1 – £9.50/month
  • Planner Plan 3 – £25.50/month
  • Planner Plan 5 – £45.00/month
For reference, MS Project desktop – £680 for a perpetual license. Prices are as quoted in October 2025 and are per user. 1 – Planner links in with Groups, SharePoint/OneDrive and Teams. Plans which don’t include these (e.g., email only subscriptions) will not include Basic Planner

2.1 – Microsoft To Do

This is a “mini planner” that you access via the on the Outlook menu. Every time you flag an email for follow up, it creates a task here. To Do is intended for individual use, it does not have functionality for collaboration.

2.2 – Basic Planner

Basic Planner provides quite a lot of functionality. These include, task boards, buckets, labels, checklists, Grid/Board/Charts/Schedule views. It can be used to collaborate as tasks are assigned to individuals and others can edit the task details, progress etc.

For a small team, on a relatively simply project, Basic Planner may suffice.

2.3 – Planner 1

Planner 1 builds on the functionality of the Basic Planner, adding timeline (Gantt), dependencies, goals, backlogs, sprints, and premium templates. In our opinion, it is not possible to plan out a project without the ability to link tasks (e.g., create dependencies) and we do find the Gantt chart views extremely helpful as the project overview. Things to note:
  • Tasks now have dependencies – e.g. task B (Agree List of Questions), must occur before task A (Write Questions).
  • The only dependency type available is Finish-to-Start (i.e., the Finish of task 3 is linked to the Start of task 4)
  • Times can be entered in “standard duration”, which is effectively working days (i.e. 5 days = 1 week)
If you want a replacement for most of the functionality of MS Project, we suggest you start with Planner 1.

2.4 – Planner 3

(Do Microsoft intend to produce Planner 2 at some point??) Anyway, as before, Planner 3 builds on Planner 1. The additions are: improved plan formatting, task history, lead/lag times, baselines, critical path, resource requests and financial tracking. Things to note:
  • In addition to Finish-to-Start dependencies, you can also use Start-to-Finish, Start-to-Start and Finish-to-Finish
  • Times can be entered in “elapsed time”, which is calendar days (i.e. 7 days = 1 week). This is useful if e.g. the response time to a submission is given as 30 calendar days, not 30 working days.
  • You can add lead/lag times – e.g., a task may start 2 days before or after another task. This can be useful to build contingency into your plan, or where the relationship between tasks is complex.
Whether this is the level for you depends on what you were using from MS Project. We have often found the critical path calculation and use of lead/lag times extremely helpful (e.g., task B starts one week after task A). For large teams you may find advanced handling of project resourcing useful.

2.5 – Planner 5

Planner 5 is the best version with the most functionality. It adds portfolio management, enterprise resource allocation, and advanced costing.

3 – Planner Outputs

3.1 Task Lists

All levels of Planner allow you to view task lists. This are available through Outlook and show upcoming tasks, all tasks assigned to you etc. The task list also lets you view and manage flagged emails. In the image below, is an example of 11 tasks that come from Plans (i.e. tasks that are linked to a plan where the user is collaborating with others in the team.

Alternatively, you can get your Planner information via Teams:

The Teams interface also lets you view Plans.

3.2 – Grid View

Available in Basic Planner and above.

Below is a screenshot of a plan we created when developing our website, it shows the Grid View.

This is quite similar to a Task List, but it includes additional detail:
  • Assigned To – team member(s) allocated this task
  • Duration
  • Label (customised for each project)
  • Finish Date (in red if tasks are late)
  • Bucket (to be explained below)

3.3 – Board View

Available in Basic Planner and above.

The screenshot below is for the same plan as show in the Task View above.

This view is commonly used when managing a project according to the principles of Kanban. Each task has a note on the board (a sticky note when using this approach in real life) and each is assigned to a bucket. In my example the buckets are:
  • Backlog – pending
  • Up Next – the list of tasks that the team can choose from when they complete a task and need to choose a new one
  • In Progress – what the team are currently working on
  • Completed
Buckets can be renamed and created/deleted as appropriate. Tasks are moved between buckets by team members, with input from the Project Manager. This process empowers the team and enables everyone to see first-hand, the status of all the tasks. There is no formal relationship between the tasks, it is up to the team, with the Project Manager’s support, to ensure that a task isn’t on the Next Up bucket if any necessary prior work hasn’t been completed.

3.4 – Timeline View (Gantt Chart)

Available in Planner 1 and above.

The Timeline View is an essential part of planning projects which are to be conducted by the “traditional waterfall” method. This method is mostly used for clinical studies as the timeframe and tasks are relatively fixed and are interdependent. See below for a Timeline view from a project showing the steps needed to perform a submission for an FDA Type C Meeting.

All the relationships shown above are standard Finish-to-Start as we are using Planner 1.

4 – Conclusion

At present at ClinOps Specialists we are using Planner 1 as this is sufficient for our needs. We will upgrade to Planner 3 if we encounter projects where the “extras” of task dependencies, elapsed days etc. prove to be essential. If you are considering transitioning to Planner, we think that Planner 1 is a good place to start.

Good luck!