Create a Plan Based on an Existing Microsoft 365 Group

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About this lesson

Create a new Outlook group plan and understand how Outlook groups interact with Microsoft Planner.

Quick reference

Create an Outlook Group Plan

Understand how Outlook group plans are created and how to use an Outlook group plan to create a new plan in Planner. 

When to use

We create a plan based off an existing Microsoft 365 group whenever we want to quickly create a plan with the same settings and members as the existing group. 

Instructions

One of the cool things about Planner is that because it exists in the Microsoft 365 cloud, it easily integrates with other Microsoft 365 applications, for example, Outlook groups.

Outlook groups get created when we do certain things in Microsoft 365. For example, when we create a Teams channel or a SharePoint site. We can use the groups in Outlook to communicate and share ideas with the group members. 

When it comes to Planner, we can create a new plan based off a group that already exists. The advantage of this is that the settings and members will be copied across to the new plan cutting down on the amount of work we need to do. 

Outlook Groups

An Outlook group is automatically created when we create a new plan in Planner. The members of the plan will be reflected in the Outlook group. 

We can use the Outlook group to chat with members, send group emails and discuss ideas. 

  • Open Outlook. 
  • Scroll down the folder list and expand Groups. 

Any plan that's been created in Planner should have a corresponding Outlook group with the same settings. 

Create a Plan from an Existing Outlook Group

We can create a new plan in Planner based off an existing Outlook group. When we do this, the settings and members from the existing group will be copied across to the plan which saves a great deal of time. 

  • From the Planner Hub, click Create new plan. 
  • Type a Plan name. 
  • Click Add to an existing Microsoft 365 group. 
  • Select the group from the list. 
  • Click Create plan.
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  • 00:04 One of the cool things about Microsoft Planner is that because it
  • 00:09 exists in Microsoft 365, it means it integrates seamlessly with
  • 00:14 other Microsoft 365 apps, including Microsoft 365 Groups.
  • 00:19 Now what exactly are Microsoft 365 Groups,
  • 00:22 maybe you've never come across them before?
  • 00:25 Well, Microsoft 365 Groups are groups that exist within Outlook.
  • 00:30 And these groups a lot of the time are automatically generated based on things
  • 00:34 that you're doing in other Microsoft 365 applications.
  • 00:39 For example, when you create a team in Microsoft Teams,
  • 00:43 it will create a corresponding Microsoft 365 Group.
  • 00:47 If you create a team site in SharePoint, again,
  • 00:50 it's going to automatically create for you a Microsoft 365 Group.
  • 00:55 So what we can do here is if we are creating a new plan in Planner,
  • 01:00 we can base it off of an existing Microsoft 365 Group.
  • 01:05 And what that means is that all of those settings, all of the members that already
  • 01:10 belong to that group, will automatically be members of the new plan.
  • 01:14 So it cuts down the amount of work that you're having to do.
  • 01:17 Now, that was quite a lot of information to take in without some examples.
  • 01:21 So I'm going to stop talking as much and we're going to take a look so
  • 01:25 you can see exactly what I'm talking about.
  • 01:28 Now, in the last lesson,
  • 01:29 we created a brand new plan called Software Development Project.
  • 01:33 And we can see it sitting there, ready for us to add tasks in Microsoft Planner.
  • 01:38 But what I'm going to do first is I'm going to jump across to Outlook Online.
  • 01:42 Now, quick way of doing that when you're within Microsoft Planner is to go up to
  • 01:46 the three dots.
  • 01:47 And if you click on Conversation, it's going to jump across to Outlook Online,
  • 01:51 and it's going to jump straight to that specific groups.
  • 01:54 You can see here Software Development Project.
  • 01:57 Now if we scroll down our folder list,
  • 01:59 you can see right at the bottom here we have Groups.
  • 02:03 So these are all of the Microsoft 365 Groups that have been created for
  • 02:07 me based on other things I've been doing.
  • 02:10 So some of these are based off of SharePoint team sites,
  • 02:13 some of these are Plan groups I've created, some of them are teams.
  • 02:18 And I can basically add team members to this group.
  • 02:21 And then we can have conversations, share files, and collaborate on other things.
  • 02:26 Now, let's just for
  • 02:27 a second jump across to another Microsoft 365 Group that I have in this list.
  • 02:32 So Microsoft 365 Phase 1 Global Rollout.
  • 02:36 Now, if I click on this,
  • 02:37 I can see that there's a few emails that have gone backwards and forwards.
  • 02:41 But I can also see that this group has nine members.
  • 02:45 And if I click on where it says nine members,
  • 02:47 I can see all of the people that are part of this particular group.
  • 02:50 So if this same group of people needed access to a plan in Planner,
  • 02:54 instead of creating the plan from scratch and then adding all the members,
  • 02:59 I can simply create a new plan based off of this particular Microsoft 365 Group.
  • 03:05 So let's do that so we can see what that looks like.
  • 03:08 I'm going to jump back across to Planner.
  • 03:11 We're going to go to New Plan.
  • 03:13 I'm going to give my plan a name.
  • 03:15 Now, this is just a test one to show you how this works.
  • 03:18 Let's call it Bathroom, Renovation.
  • 03:24 Now, this is where we click on that link underneath,
  • 03:28 Add to an existing Microsoft 365 Group.
  • 03:31 And it is going to pop open all of the groups that I have access to.
  • 03:35 So if I scroll down, there is that group, Microsoft 365 Phase 1 Global Rollout.
  • 03:41 I can see that it's a private group.
  • 03:43 And when I choose Create plan,
  • 03:45 it's going to add that new plan over on the left hand side.
  • 03:49 You can see it there, Bathroom Renovation.
  • 03:52 But take a look at the top here, it's also added all of those members.
  • 03:56 So everybody who was a member of the existing Microsoft 365 Group has now
  • 04:01 been ported across to this new plan.
  • 04:03 So that's the difference between creating a plan from scratch and
  • 04:07 creating a plan based off of an existing group.

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