PMO Archives - The Project Corner

This blog is dead…?

“Dearly beloved, we gather here to remember The Project Corner — a blog that bravely stood between confused PMO managers and Microsoft’s own documentation. It served faithfully as a middleman between people who couldn’t figure out Microsoft Project and a company that couldn’t be bothered to write clear docs. It is survived by approximately 14,000 unread Microsoft Learn articles that said the same thing.”

LAST WORDS “But… but I had REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE configuring Project Server 2016… you can’t just KNOW that…”

That’s what I got when entering the blog’s URL into a lovely (and frightening) website called: Deathbyclawd.com. I was just scrolling on my phone, so the images are “phone sized”.

Brutal response from the website about my blog. — This really got me thinking, so I’m actually happy about this.

What are Workback Plans in Planner and Teams?

Wedged between other new features on the planner blog, we read about “Workback Plans” in public preview. But not much more is shared, which is odd because it can be a cool feature. Well, there is an image, and a one liner with another link:

Workback Plan generation is now available in channels, helping teams quickly create reverse timelines based on a target deadline.

On the second page we get:

Workback Plans in Teams channels: Project Manager Agent and the Channel Agent together now support the creation of AI-powered Workback Plans, automatically generating a reverse timeline of tasks and milestones based on the target deadline and goal provided.

Asking the Channel Agent what it can do. Note: the channel is called Planner

How to report on Planner Portfolios

In my last article I build a resource focussed report for both Planner, and Planner Premium “plans”. In that article I removed the Roadmap tables, because they didn’t work anymore. But what if you want to report on the new portfolio feature, which is similar in so many ways? Let’s find out together!

Roadmap and portfolio tables in power bi. — Would you look at that… roadmaps uhm Portfolios.

Major Updates Coming to Microsoft Planner in second half of 2025

Microsoft is accelerating the transformation of its project management offerings with a significant evolution of Planner set to take place between late April and early September 2025. For organizations invested in Microsoft’s project management ecosystem, understanding these updates is crucial for a smooth transition and to take advantage of new capabilities.

In this article, I will look closer at each of the upcoming enhancements to Microsoft Planner, highlight key migration changes, and clarify which features will not carry over from Project for the web.

Model driven Power Apps permissions explained

A few years ago, I’ve shifted my attention from Project Online towards the modern “Model Driven Power Apps” solutions. And with this switch there’s a lot of new information to learn. One of the most steep learning curve was/is regarding the permissions structure of Model driven Power Apps.

This article is as much here to help you along the way when you are pressed to work with security topics in model driven power apps. As it is a reminder for myself on “how did that work again?”.

This is a more technical article than you might be used to on The Project Corner, and I can fully understand if this is not something to your taste. Please, take some time to explore the other articles on the site.

The doorman, a funny analogy of access to the Model Driven Power Apps. He's testing to see if you are on the list to enter. And which drinks you are allowed to drink, what music you are listening to, and who you see in the Power App bar. — The doorman (the security rules), seeing if you are on the list to enter. And among others, which drinks you are allowed to drink, what music you are listening to, and who you see in the Power App bar.

Maximizing PMO Efficiency with Microsoft Loop

Let’s return to this great new tool: Microsoft Loop. It’s a really fun, easy and fast way to collaborate. But I think there’s even more potential to maximize the PMO’s efficiency. But first, is it a bird? Is it a plane? No… it’s Microsoft Lodds?! (Gen AI has a way with words, doesn’t it?).

Aim for the flagship, but implement the rubber boat

What’s this, Erik? Did you switch profession and go for the open seas? No, no, don’t worry, this is still very much a “help the PMO succeed” article. Let’s dig in, to a topic that comes up in a shape or form in every customer engagement.

Cover image for implementing the rubber boat instead of the flagship. — Obviously, it’s a chatGPT generated image.