Introduction

The task history feature in Microsoft Planner helps task owners stay on top of their tasks. You can quickly find recent progress that has been made or task changes that have impacted the schedule. Edits to tasks such as adding the task to a sprint, changing its duration, giving it a goal, or changes to other tasks that affect the schedule of work all appear in the Changes pane in Task Details.

Watch this 1-minute video for a quick overview of Task History.

If you’re just getting started with Planner, learn more about what we’ve been working on in this recent blog post . Or jump in by opening the updated Planner App in Microsoft Teams.

Getting Started

Task history is available to all Planner users who have a Project Plan 3 or greater license. If you do not have a premium Project license, you can simply click on the diamond icon within the app where you can begin your free 30-day trial of advanced capabilities in Planner or request a premium license.

First, open a premium plan in Planner.
Open task details for any task. You can reach it by clicking the task details icon in the task grid, or by clicking a task card in the board view.

    3. The task history icon is in the top corner of task details. Click it to open the changes pane.

Details about the recorded changes

All the changes a user makes to a task are recorded in task history. Details for each edit include who made the change, when they made it, what property was changed, the previous value, and the new value.

History for a task includes edits such as:

Adding or removing labels
Changing the duration or effort
Editing checklists
Adding or removing attachments
Edits to any custom columns

Changes made to other tasks that impact the selected task

Planner makes it easy to track dependencies between tasks. These links mean it is crucial for task owners to understand how changes across the plan impacts their work. Task history makes it easy to identify these changes and stay on track. Changes made to other tasks that impact either the start date or finish date of the selected task have a history record that shows high-level information about the edit.

In the example shown below, Diego Siciliani edited the duration of a related task called “Review organizational marketing strategy.” This task edit moved the start date of the currently selected task.

Navigating to related task edits

Clicking the task title in a history record takes you to the related task and highlights the relevant edit. In this example, clicking the task title of the record shown in the above example opens the “Review organizational marketing strategy” task and highlights the change in duration. Pressing the back button in Teams returns you to the previously selected task.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why don’t I see the task history button?
Task History is only available to users working in premium plans who have a Project Plan 3 or greater license. If you do not have a premium Project license, you can simply click on the diamond icon within the app where you can begin your free 30-day trial of advanced capabilities.

Will edits made by users without a Project Plan 3 license be shown in the Changes pane?
Yes. Edits made by all users, regardless of their license, will appear in the changes pane. Only users with a Project Plan 3 or greater license will be able to open the changes pane to view these edits.

Is task history available in basic plans?
No. Task history -along with other powerful features such as custom columns, goals, and timeline view, gives teams with more sophisticated project management requirements the tools they need to keep their plans on track. These features are only available in premium plans.

Can my team build Power BI reports using Task History data?
Yes. Task history data is stored in Microsoft Dataverse and can be queried using Power BI. Learn more about the schema by visiting our support page.

Do edits to tasks using the Project scheduling APIs appear in task history?
No. Only edits to tasks made using the grid, board, or timeline views appear in the Changes pane.

My team uses Project in Power Apps, do edits made in that context appear in task history?
Edits made in the grid, board, goals, people, and timeline views appear in Task History. Any edits to tasks using Power Apps forms as well as any edits to columns added to tables in Dataverse are not shown in task history.

My team has customized Project in Power Apps, will task history work in our environment?

Yes, but your administrator needs to ensure that they are testing their customizations with the latest release, including any customization of security roles in Dataverse.

Learn more about the new Planner

To get the inside scoop on the new Planner watch the Meet the Makers and our AMA.
Watch the new Planner demos for inspiration on how to get the most out of the new Planner app in Microsoft Teams.
Check out the new Planner adoption website.
We’ve got a lot more ‘planned’ for the new Planner this year! Stay tuned to the Planner Blog – Microsoft Community Hub for news.
For future updates coming to the new Planner app, please view the Microsoft 365 roadmap here.
Learn about Planner and Project plans and pricing here.
Read the FAQs here.

Share your feedback

​Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More