Microsoft’s latest update to the Planner integration for managing Microsoft 365 changes might sound minor, but for product managers and administrators, it could be a step backwards. Instead of streamlining change management, it strips away key information and could force teams into more manual, error-prone processes.
Microsoft announced the adjustment on 20th August, via the Message Center, as MC1138236. The ChangePilot summary details the change:
MC1138236 - Change to Message Center Planner Sync Behavior for “Action By:” Date Field
- The “Action By:” date field will no longer automatically populate the due date in Microsoft Planner.
- New Planner items will require manual due date entry.
- Existing Planner items will not be affected by this change.
- Users gain more control over task due dates based on organizational needs.
- Admin action is not required to enable this update.
The rationale for this change is a good one. Microsoft have responded to a strong limitation of the current, native Message Center experience: the inability to reliably track deployment dates, and easily use the information provided in a robust M365 change management process.
Previously, the 'Due date' field in Planner would be populated by the date in the 'Action by' field of a Message Center item. Microsoft say by no longer doing this auto-population, users will have "more control over task management timelines" and it will allow "teams to manage due dates independently". This change also solves a common quirk in the process, where a team amends an auto-populated 'Due date' to suit task scheduling, only for it to be overwritten back to the 'Action by' date when Microsoft push an update to the original message. Now, even if the item gets updated - a regular occurrence- teams keep the desired 'Due date'.
But when it comes down to it, this means every single item must now be reviewed, triaged, and manually given a due date if reviewing in Planner. This is especially significant for less diligent, or smaller tenants, who rely on the auto-population of this date to identify key items where they must take action; the 'Due date' field can no longer be used as the marker for the most critical items.
Taking on this additional burden of understanding and scheduling action for every single item is not insignificant. Admins must open each Message Center post, interpret the vague rollout language, and decide on a due date themselves. Multiply that by the thousands of changes published per year, and you’ve got a serious productivity drain.
Research conducted by the ChangePilot Team suggests that, even if a user only spends 30 seconds - a conservative estimate -reviewing, interpreting and scheduling action for each item, this can take up to 5% of full-time employee's time at a cost of $4,000 per annum. This does not include any action required as a result of the update; a reminder of the scale of effort required to stay on top of the evergreen M365 system.
Regardless of if users find this a positive change or not, are we glossing over a wider issue?
With all that said, it could be argued the effects of this specific update are negligible compared to the overall resource and time drain caused by needing to manually manage the constant stream of notice from the Message Center, even when using the Planner sync.
An average of less than 4% of items are given an "Action By:" date in the M365 Message Center. Yes, this update from Microsoft now requires those using the Planner sync to review every single item and assess the due date, but this was already the case for 95% of items.
Tools such as ChangePilot bring a version of the 'Action by' to 'Due date' logic to life for all items from the Message Center. Using a combination of AI and human review across every item, deployment dates are extracted from the prose of the message, and can be used to order and filter Message Center items as required. With the addition of differential impact scores for both administrators and users, and filters for the 70+ Microsoft 365 products, admins have greater visibility and a more focused view of the the changes relevant to them.
ChangePilot Pro users also get access to interactive dashboards, including Gantt charts, to visualise the cadence of updates across the suite about to hit their tenant.
Readying yourself for the update.
If you are using the Planner sync to manage items from the Message Center, there is no action required to enable this change as it is on by default. Otherwise, Microsoft advise the following actions and checks to protect existing processes and workflows:
- Inform users who rely on Planner task automation that due dates will now need to be set manually or through custom logic.
- Review any internal documentation or training materials that reference the “Action By:” field behavior.
- If you use Power Automate or other tools to manage Planner tasks, consider updating flows to reflect this change.
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