Microsoft is getting ready to simplify how Planner, its Trello alternative for Microsoft 365 customers works. As of today, the process for creating a plan requires users to either add the new plan to an existing Microsoft 365 Group, otherwise creating the new plan will also create a new Microsoft 365 Group.
This will change next month with the addition of Roster plans, will can be created outside of Microsoft 365 Groups. “This will be enabled by Roster containers, which is a simple list of members stored in Planner that can contain any user with a valid AAD ID in that tenant,” Microsoft explained in a message on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
The new Roster plans in Planner will live alongside existing plans associated to Microsoft 365 Groups, and there will be no differences in terms of functionalities. Members of Roster Plans will be able to invite colleagues from the same tenant, and all members will have equivalent permissions.
Overall, this is a good step for making Planner a bit easier to use, as it’s currently a bit too easy to end up with too many Microsoft 365 Groups when creating new plans. Roster plans will start rolling out in Planner next month, but Microsoft will still allow Office 365 admins to disable them if needed, and more details can be found on this support page.
