Microsoft Project Professional vs. Planner premium plans

As part of the rollout of Microsoft Planner, I need to be able to explain the differences to the users. Yes, I used Claude for inspiration with human oversight, correcting it's errors and adding my style. I think (hope) it was a good collaboration. Feedback is always welcomed and appreciated so thanks in advance!

Some Background

Microsoft Project has been developed over 40 years so it has tons of functionality. Version 1.0 which is a Windows desktop application launched in 1984 and has had 31 versions since then. Yes, thirty one versions! A great summary of the history of this tool by Allan Rocha can be found at Microsoft Project Names and Logos History.

Microsoft Planner launched in 2016 and was built for teams, part of Microsoft 365 work or school subscription. It is not in Office 365 i.e., not for personal use. There are Web, Android, and iOS apps unlike Project Desktop. It was announced at Ignite 2019 that Planner is now part of the "Microsoft task ecosystem". In the Spring of 2024, the new Planner app in Teams became generally available and "Tasks by Planner" and the To Do app in Teams were renamed to "Planner". This app is now called Planner with basic plan.

Project for the web launched in 2019 was developed from-scratch as a Web-based project scheduling tool and renamed to Microsoft Planner premium plans in 2024. It was also referred to as "Project Power App" and more recently "New Planner" and was designed to work with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Microsoft is actively working on bringing Project Online and Project desktop features to this new product.

Confused? No kidding, so was I and still am sometimes! I have to explain this to people almost daily.

Let's start with the hard things, understanding what is not built (yet?) in Planner Premium that exists in Project Professional. Those Senior Project Managers who have used it for years will miss a few things for sure.

What will Sr. Project Managers miss?

Senior Project Managers (PMs) will have years of experience using Project and they especially will feel that Planner premium plans lack advanced project management features. My aim is to encourage adoption by identifying the gaps that they’ll miss most to avoid surprises and, at the same time, show them how to bridge those gaps.

The following sections list the features that Senior PMs will likely miss, and where possible, how to mitigate.

Complex Task Scheduling and Constraints

Project Professional allows defining complex dependencies with lead and lag times, task constraints such as “Start No Earlier Than”, manually controlled scheduling, and critical path analysis.

In Planner premium plans, use dependencies and define milestones manually by creating key milestones and label them as checkpoints.

Resource Leveling and Capacity Planning

Project Professional provides automatic resource leveling (to resolve overbooking) and workload balancing across multiple projects.

Planner premium plans do not have the concept of unnamed resources. You could use the People View to shows task assignments and rebalance workload manually. Later, you could connect Planner to Microsoft Power BI and build custom reports to visualize overbooking and redistribute resources more effectively. Or, just wait until Microsoft adds the functionality 😂

Cost and Financial Tracking

Project Professional supports detailed cost tracking for labor and materials, earned value analysis (EVA), and baseline cost comparisons.

Planner premium plans are missing these features so instead you would need to track costs in Power BI by setting up a Power BI dashboard to track project costs using task metadata and resource data from Planner. You could use Excel for detailed costing and link Planner tasks to an Excel file for more detailed cost analysis. That sounds painful.

Critical Path and Slack Time Analysis

Project Professional allows highlighting the critical path and analyzing slack time. Instead, use Planner’s dependency view. While not as detailed, the Timeline view in Planner plans show task sequences and blockers. Over time, you could create a Power BI report to analyze task completion timelines and dependency bottlenecks. But, then you're building your own tool.

Baseline Comparisons and Versioning

Project Professional allows setting project baselines and comparing actual progress against them. To mitigate this in Planner premium plans, you can manually define milestones and track baseline milestones. Worst case, export the schedule to Excel for manual baseline comparisons and automate the comparison with Power Automate. Again, building your own tool.

Custom Reporting

Project Professional provides customizable, detailed reports on tasks, costs, resource utilization, and more. Over time, use Power BI for advanced reporting create custom dashboards that mirror Project Professional reports. You can still export to Excel for PMs who prefer to do Excel-based analysis.

Offline Access and Control

Project Professional works entirely offline, allowing PMs to plan and analyze without an internet connection.

With Planner, use the Planner mobile app which allows task updates while mobile and export Planner task data to Excel periodically for offline reference. Just don't make changes in the file as they won't show up in Planner!

I guess the question is, how much of your day are you really offline. I know I try to find "No service" zones for a break but those are pretty hard to find!

Recurring Tasks

Project Professional allows setting up complex recurring tasks (e.g., every Monday, last day of the month).

This can be mitigated by setting up Power Automate triggers to automate task creation based on a recurring schedule. You can also use task templates in Planner to quickly recreate recurring tasks. I don't think this will be a big miss for Senior PMs.

Senior Project Managers may resist moving to Planner because it feels like, and in some cases is, a step down from the control and complexity of Project Professional. So, instead acknowledge the gaps and highlight all of the benefits.

Focus on the benefits

Now that we've looked at what the Senior PMs will miss, let's focus on the benefits, and there are quite a few. To win them over, I think I need to highlight these things:

1. Planner is a tool for team-based execution - Planner simplifies collaboration, communication, and real-time updates, not for extremely detailed scheduling.
2. Automation and AI – Copilot and Power Automate can potentially reduce manual effort and improve accuracy. It's early days for Copilot!
3. "Modern" accessibility – Planner is cross-platform, integrated with Teams, cloud-based, and has a nice mobile app
4. Ongoing training and support - quite a different user interface
5. Goals - this is a great feature in Planner Premium allowing you to set high level goals and assign tasks across the schedule to each goal
6. Hybrid approach – use Planner Basic for small projects and initiatives' team execution and Planner Premium for more detailed planning

Senior Project Managers can offload tactical execution to their teams in Planner, freeing them to focus on project oversight. The broader Microsoft ecosystem including Teams and Power BI can fill the gaps left by Project Professional and make the transition more appealing.

Now let's get into a bit more of the details.

Detailed comparison

Here’s a detailed comparison between Microsoft Project Professional (standalone) and Microsoft Planner premium plans, organized by feature category. This assumes that Project Professional is being used strictly as a standalone desktop tool without connection to Project Online or Project Server - which reflects the most limited collaboration setup and the one we have at work.

Summary of Differences

Tasks

• Project Professional:
  ❌ Tasks can be created and assigned within the project file, but the file is not shared in real time
  ❌ Task updates must be manually saved and redistributed to stakeholders
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Tasks can be created, assigned to team members, and updated in real time
  ✔️ Task changes are reflected instantly for all team members
  ✔️ Multiple task categories (e.g., priority, labels) are available
  ✔️ Timeline Views in addition to Gantt Charts

Agile and Sprint Planning

• Project Professional:
  ❌ doesn't really support Agile methods
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Native support for Agile planning with backlogs and sprints
  ✔️ Tasks can be moved between sprints and progress tracked automatically

Gantt charts

• Project Professional:
  ✔️ Full Gantt chart support with task dependencies, lead/lag times, and critical path analysis.
  ✔️ Highly detailed control over task scheduling and constraints
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Provides a Timeline (Gantt) view with task dependencies
  ✔️ Suitable for most task tracking but lacks the complex scheduling flexibility of Project Professional

Task dependencies

• Project Professional:
  ✔️ Supports task dependencies: Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Start-to-Finish
  ✔️ Allows manual adjustment of dependency relationships
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Supports task dependencies: Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Start-to-Finish
  ✔️ Dependencies are updated automatically across the project when changes occur

Recurring Tasks

• Project Professional:
  ✔️ Allows creation of recurring tasks with complex patterns (e.g., every Monday, every 2nd Wednesday)
• Planner Premium:
  ❌ No support for recurring tasks

Resource and Workload Management

• Project Professional:
  ✔️ Allows assigning resources (e.g., people, materials) to tasks.
  ✔️ Provides detailed resource costing and utilization reports.
  ❌ No real-time tracking of resource availability across projects unless using Project Online
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Allows assigning team members to tasks
  ✔️ Provides visibility into workload through the People view
  ✔️ Updates resource allocation in real time as tasks are reassigned.
  ✔️ Resource Leveling
• Project Professional:
  ✔️ Allows manual and automatic leveling of resource conflicts
• Planner Premium:
  ❌ No direct resource leveling, but workload balancing can be adjusted manually using the People view

Collaboration and Communication

• Project Professional:
  ❌ Project Professional has no built-in collaboration
  ❌ The project file is not shared in real time; updates must be distributed manually
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Fully integrated with Microsoft Teams for real-time collaboration
  ✔️ Team members can comment on tasks and tag others.
  ✔️ Notifications for task assignments and status changes are automated
  ✔️ File Sharing

Storage

• Project Professional:
  ❌ Project plans are stored as separate (.mpp) files in folders
• Planner Basic
  ❌ Plans are managed within Planner's app storage
• Planner Premium
  ✔️ plans are stored in Microsoft Dataverse, part of Azure

Progress Tracking and Dashboards

• Project Professional:
  ✔️ Provides detailed progress reports and earned value analysis
  ✔️ Supports creating custom charts and graphs
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Provides visual dashboards for progress tracking
  ✔️ Real-time updates to charts and task completion data.
  ✔️ Lacks the granular control over financial reporting available in Project Professional.
  ✔️ Burndown and Velocity Tracking

Burndown charts

• Project Professional:
  ✔️ Provides burndown charts and velocity tracking through custom reports
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Includes built-in burndown charts and velocity tracking for sprints

Automation and AI

• Project Professional:
  ❌ No built-in automation unless combined with Power Automate or VBA scripting
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Direct integration with Power Automate for automating task creation, notifications, and more.
  ✔️ Copilot for generating tasks, setting goals, and adjusting schedules dynamically based on progress

User Experience and Accessibility

• Project Professional:
  ❌ Complex interface tailored for experienced project managers
  ❌ Steep learning curve due to the number of options and configurations
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Simple, intuitive interface designed for quick adoption by teams
  ✔️ Accessible via browser, Microsoft Teams, and mobile apps
  ✔️ Platform Support

Security and Permissions

• Project Professional:
  ❌ Local file-level permissions only
  ❌ No role-based access unless using Project Server or Online
• Planner Premium:
  ✔️ Role-based access with Owners, Members, and Guests
  ✔️ Supports Microsoft 365 sensitivity labels and compliance policies

Why Move to Planner Premium

1. Real-time collaboration – Teams can communicate, adjust schedules, and track progress in real time
2. Accessibility – Cross-platform support with a modern, web-based interface
3. Integrated environment – Planner Premium fits naturally into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, enhancing teamwork and productivity
4. Automation and AI – Copilot and Power Automate reduce manual work and improve decision-making

Conclusion

For project managers currently using Project Professional as a standalone tool, transitioning to - Planner Premium will provide them with real-time collaboration, simplified task management, and automation.

References

1. When to use Microsoft Project, Planner, To Do, or the Tasks app in Teams - Microsoft
2. Microsoft Planner Datasheet - Microsoft
3. Planner Blog - Microsoft's Tech Community, "planner premium" query
4. Microsoft Planner AMA, Microsoft, 2024-04-04
5. Introducing the Project Accelerator, Microsoft, 2021 - I would avoid this at all costs
6. Microsoft Project for the web service description - learn.microsoft.com
7. Project for the web and Project Online - Microsoft Support