Microsoft Project is the true heavyweight of Redmond's project management software that can handle complex scheduling, capacity management, Gantt charts, dependencies, and more. However, a lightweight alternative also exists in the form of Planner. This is not an alternative for the desktop variant of Project, but it still offers some of the same capabilities in a collaborative Kanban-style interface on the web. Now, Microsoft has confirmed that Planner is finally getting a new view that should give decent competition to Project.
In a very brief Microsoft 365 Roadmap update tagged asRM569733, Microsoft has told customers that it is developing a "capacity view" in Planner. As some of you may be aware, this has been amajor pain point for Planner userswho say that it is difficult to understand capacity utilization in Planner. Microsoft is now looking to solve this problem once and for all using "a timeline of who's working on what." This will facilitate customers in understanding overloaded or underutilized capacity at a glance.
Although the company hasn't provided us our first look at this upcoming view just yet, it could be similar to Microsoft Project, which offers it natively. Up until now, Planner users were forced to either transition to Microsoft Project just to view their capacity usage or export their data manually or automatically to Power BI through Power Automate, and then build custom visuals on top.
If the roadmap entry remains consistent in the coming months, Planner customers won't have to resort to workarounds to view their Team's capacity in the existing interface after October 2026. This is an essential capability for Planner, especially sinceProject Online is being retired next month, and thecompany has been encouraging users to shift to Planner. That said, do keep in mind that Microsoft 365 Roadmap entries are not set in stone, so don't be surprised if this feature gets delayed.