5 Core Office 365 Tools for Managing Tasks and Projects

May 19, 2021 Guest User

There’s a reason why there are more than 100 million monthly active users on Microsoft Office 365 and why organizations rely on Microsoft Office 365 for their daily activities more than any other web-based business application. Office 365 is very beneficial for a variety of different projects and tasks and allows employees to manage more effectively. This blog will break down five relevant tools in Office 365 that will help you manage your projects, including the pros and cons for each to help you decide which is right for you.

The five tasks and project management applications currently available include;

Planner
Sharepoint task lists
Project Outline
Outlook Tasks
To-Do

Planner

With Planner, teams can manage private and public plans and task buckets through creating and prioritizing tasks. Along with collaborating and commenting with other team members through SharePoint on project documents, users can also get instant reporting through board and chart views.

Pros

Clear visualization of activities and keeping on track of projects
Easy to manage and well-defined plans and tasks
Integrated with Microsoft Teams, making it simpler to collaborate

Cons

Large projects are more difficult to manage
Supervising and handling large teams is insufficient

SharePoint Task Lists

Cohesive with this tool's name, this tool allows users to create lists of tasks and subtasks and visualize the allocation on the timeline of a project. Additionally, SharePoint Task Lists enables users to manage tasks, assign resources, and envision their tasks through Gantt charts, personal tasks, upcoming tasks, and more.

Pros

Utilize Outlook calendar and conversations
Provides simplified representation of the project and individual tasks
Can be paired with other SharePoint features

Cons

Multiple timelines within one task list cannot be added
Customization is needed for larger project reporting

Project Outline

Project Outline offers three plans; Essentials, Professional, and Premium. Each plan is for a different target group and includes project and resources managers. This application provides project planning, task scheduling, resource management, and other features. Project Online is a professional application for project portfolio management and is the most powerful out of all the Office 365 tools.

Pros

Can handle various projects
Has the ability to meet the needs of various different employees

Cons

Requires employees’ skills to utilize and handle
Training for end-users is required and adoptions can be challenging

Outlook Tasks

If you are looking for a more personalized task management tool, Outlook Tasks may be right for you. This tool allows teams to manage their activities within their email. Through Outlook Tasks, you can mark your tasks off by their status, priority, category, and more.

Pros

Easy to share with other team members
Can be coupled with Outlook Groups and allow users to work together on the same app
A great option for moderate project management

Cons

Users have to put the effort in to make tasks clearly arranged
Additional training may be required to be adequately used
Tasks are not very organized and can appear messy if many entries and events are added

To-Do

To-Do is an app that enables users to manage personal or business-related tasks through lists, due dates, notifications, and slight UI changes. To-Do can be used alongside Outlook Tasks and synchronize with their inbox.

Pros

Easy to use and aesthetically laid out tool
Allows employees to use a private task management area and prioritize specific activities
Can be used independently of other team members

Cons

As it replaced Wunderlist, this tool is still incomplete and may lag. The mobile app is also much weaker than the web app
There is no option for employees to create subtasks
Employees cannot share tasks with other users

Conclusion

These five project management tools outlined are very effective to manage tasks and projects and can help to keep your team organized and on track. Aside from these five core tools, Office 365 also has some other options including:

SharePoint Project sites - This tool is essentially an advancement from Sharepoint Task Lists where teams can collaborate and share the news.
Microsoft Teams - This is a central communication hub where you have all the features from Planner as well as a more interactive component.
Yammer - Adding on to Project Online, Yammer is a forum-like area on the Sharepoint project site.

Evidently, there are numerous options for you to choose from when it comes to project management on Office 365. Every tool has its own strengths and weaknesses, but each individual tool has its own specialties.