Updated March 27, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
The task publishing experience allows frontline organizations to distribute tasks across employees spread across geographically dispersed locations and then monitor how that work is going. Task publishing is available in Microsoft Teams as part of the Tasks by Planner and To Do app, which will soon be renamed to Planner.
We’re releasing several new task publishing features based on top customer requests and feedback:
- Recurring task lists. You’ll be able to set recurrence on a draft task list, which will allow you to choose the cadence (such as every month on the 15th of the month). You can then publish the list and task publishing will automatically send future tasks. We know this will be a time saver for distributing repeat tasks across frontline locations. Common applications are weekly/monthly site inspections and compliance walks or daily opening and closing tasks.
- Training and policy task lists. You’ll be able to create a task list for each member of a recipient team. When you publish the list and choose the recipient teams, a copy of the tasks in the list will be created for and assigned to each member of the recipient teams. This is a great option for training tasks or tasks where employees must acknowledge a new policy.
- Form completion requirement. You’ll be able to add a form completion requirement to a task, which allows you to create a Microsoft Forms survey that must be completed by a member of each recipient team before that team can complete the task. You can use any Forms question types, including a question that requires a file upload for employees to show their work. You’ll be able to centrally review the form submissions across the locations.
- Approval completion requirement. Similarly, you’ll be able to add an approval completion requirement to a task, which means that the task cannot be approved until an approval of the completed work is requested and granted. The approval can be requested directly from the task details by the user completing the task.
These features will be enabled as part of the rollout of the new Planner experience (more info at https://aka.ms/thenewplanner).
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 135562.
[When this will happen:]
Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early April 2024 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by mid-April 2024 (previously late March).
Standard Release: We will begin rolling out mid-April 2024 (previously late March) and expect to complete by early May 2024 (previously early April).
[How this will affect your organization:]
If you are using the task publishing feature, you will see new options when creating task lists and tasks.
- For recurrence options when working with a draft list, you can select Does not recur next to the list title to change the recurrence setting (Screenshot 1 below).
- You’ll see the option to create a task list for each team member when you click the New list button (Screenshot 2 below).
- You’ll see the option to add a form completion requirement or approval completion requirement to a task after you’ve created a task in the draft task list. Select the task to open it and add a new completion requirement at the bottom of the task details dialog box (Screenshot 3 below).
Screenshot 1: Task list recurrence options:
Screenshot 2: Create a task list will show two types:
Screenshot 3: Add a form completion requirement or approval completion requirement:
[What you need to do to prepare:]
No additional action is needed to prepare for this rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.
