A Guide To Using The Microsoft Teams Milestones App

This article will outline how to use the Milestones App in Microsoft Teams. The Milestones app is a project management tool integrated with Microsoft Teams and can be used for simple work tracking. For an overview of what the Milestones app does and how it differs from Microsoft Planner (otherwise known as Tasks By Planner and To-Do) check out my overview article. The overview article explains what the Milestones app does and also provides a feature comparison to Microsoft Planner. This article will provide you with in-depth instructions on how to use the Milestones app in Teams.

How To Add The Milestones App To A Team In Microsoft Teams

To get started with the Microsoft Teams Milestones app, the first thing that you need to do is add it to a channel of a team. Unfortunately, the Milestones app can only be used in Microsoft Teams. You cannot access it from a browser or as a stand-alone mobile app. To add the Milestones app to a channel of a team in Microsoft Teams follow these steps.

Step 1: From the channel of the Team that you want to add the Milestones app to, click on the “add a tab” button.

Step 2: Enter the word “milestones” in the search field and click on the “Milestones” app icon. Note that if you do not see the Milestones app listed, it may be because your Microsoft Administrator has restricted which apps are available in the Microsoft Teams app store. If you do not see the app listed, you should contact your Microsoft Administrator and request that the app be enabled. Note that the app is free to use for most customers who have Microsoft 365 enterprise licenses including Microsoft 365 E1, E3, E5, etc.

Step 3: Click “add”.

Step 4: Click “save” to install the Milestones app.

Step 5: A progress bar will be displayed that outlines the status of the Milestones app installation process. Note that this process could take up to five or ten minutes to complete. Also note, that I had a few scenarios where this process froze requiring me to close out of Microsoft Teams altogether and restart the process.

Step 6: You will be prompted to grant the Milestones app permission to access Office 365 users. This permission allows the app to view other users in your Microsoft 365 environment so that you can assign work items to other users. Review the permissions and then click “allow”.

Step 7: Once the installation is complete, the Milestones app user interface will be displayed. Note that it will also feature a project record called “system deployment” which includes milestones and work items. This is a test project for the purposes of displaying how the app works.

How Does The Microsoft Teams Milestones App Work?

It goes without saying that projects are at the center of the Milestones app. The Microsoft Teams Milestones app is based on recording information about projects. In it, users can create project records, project milestones, and team members. In the context of this app, milestones are just a means to group or segment different streams of work in the project. Milestones are given a name, a color for the purposes of easily identifying which milestone work items (i.e. tasks) are related to, and a date that is meant to represent a due date or completion date for the milestone. Members are added to a project solely for the purpose of task assignment. Tasks in the milestones app are referred to as work items. Work items record minimal information about tasks including the name, description, related milestone, category, status, priority, and due date. Unlike Microsoft Planner, the task management in the Milestones app is rather basic. The most effective feature of the Milestones app is that it provides a good visual dashboard of your project status and information. This is what sets it apart from Microsoft Planner and may make it a valuable tool for small and simple projects that require basic tracking and visual reporting.

How To Setup The Microsoft Teams Milestones App

Fortunately, the Milestones app does not require an extensive amount of setup before it can be used. Users will note that there is a settings icon in the app interface as outlined in the screenshot below.

Clicking on the setting icon brings up the global setting menu where you can configure the app categories, priority, and status values. It is important to note that the values set are globally which means they will apply to all projects created in the Milestones app. This is somewhat limiting as perhaps you may want to specify different categories for different types of projects. To do this, you would d need to install a second instance of the app in a different channel or team.

To update any of the category, priority, or status values, simply click into the text box and enter the new value.

To delete an existing category, priority, or status value, click on the trash icon to the right of the value. To add additional values click on the “+ add” option. Once you have made all of your changes, click “save” to commit them.

How To Create A Project In The Microsoft Teams Milestones App

Follow the steps outlined below to create a project in the Microsoft Teams Milestones app.

Step 1: From the Milestones main interface, click on “+ new project”.

Step 2: Enter a name for the project in the “name” field.

Step 3: Next you will create the milestones associated with your project. Milestones represent the different streams of work on your project. They are used to help organize the project work. Enter the milestone name and select the target completion date for the milestones. Note that you can also change the color code for the milestone by clicking on the color box to the left of the milestone name. Click “+ add a milestone” if you want to create additional ones. Once finished, click “next”.

Step 4: Next, you will be prompted to add team members to the project. Search for and select the members that you want to add to the project. It is important to note that you will be able to add any user from your organization to the project. This is somewhat odd given that you may select a user that is not actually a member of the team. Adding a user who is not a member of the team is not going to grant them access to the app rather, it is only going to allow work items to be assigned to them. You will not be able to assign users to a work item unless they are added to the project. Once you’ve finished adding all users to the project, click “create”. Also, note that there no notifications are sent to a team member when a task is assigned to them. To implement this functionality, you would have to do so through Microsoft Power Automate.

Step 5: Now that the project has been created, it will be displayed in the list of projects. You can also assign the project a cover photo and can also change the default color theme for the project by clicking on the cover selector button.

Step 6: To change the color theme, select a color from the list of options. You can also select a cover image from the provided images or upload your own by clicking “+ add new”.

How To Create Tasks In The Microsoft Teams Milestones App

Tasks in the Milestones app are referred to as work items. Work items are created to break down the milestones into smaller more manageable components. Work items are also important in the context of the milestones app because their status is what rolls up to generate the percentage complete for their parent milestone. To create a work item in the Milestones app, follow these steps.

Step 1: Click on the project that you want to create the task in and click “+ new work item”.

Step 2: Enter a name for the work item in the “title” field.

Step 3: Next, assign the work item to a team member. Note that only those team members that were added to the project appear in the drop-down list. Also, note that a work item can only be assigned to one team member.

Step 4: Next, select the milestone that the work item is related to in the Milestone field. Note that only the milestones that were added when the project was created appear in the drop-down list.

Step 5: Next, select the category that the milestone is associated with. Note that the list of categories will mirror what was set in the global settings.

Step 6:  Next, select the priority for the work item.

Step 7:  Next, set the target date for the work item to be completed by and enter a description that explains what the objective of the work item is.

Step 8: The last step is to set the work item status and click create.

Step 9: Once you have clicked create, the Microsoft Teams Milestones app will return to the dashboard and you will see the work item listed.

How To Update Tasks In The Microsoft Teams Milestones App

After work items have been added to the Microsoft Teams Milestones app, team members can update them so that their real-time status is visible in the app. To update a work item, a user simply needs to click on the work item and that will bring up the create a work item menu where the details (including status) can be modified.

How To Delete a Task In The Microsoft Teams Milestones App

Step 1: To delete a work item from the Microsoft Teams Milestones app, check the item in the Milestones dashboard and then click the delete icon above the task list.

Step 2: A message will be displayed asking you to confirm that you want to permanently delete the work item. Click “I understand” and then click delete. Note that once deleted, work items cannot be recovered.

How To Edit Or Delete A Project In The Microsoft Teams Milestones App

Editing a project in the context of the Microsoft Teams Milestones app entails changing the name, adding, updating, or deleting milestones, adding or removing team members, and deleting the project. To edit or delete a project in the Microsoft Teams Milestones app follow these steps.

Step 1: Hover your cursor over the project and click the pencil icon. This is going to bring you to the same screen that you used to create the project.

Step 2: To rename the project, enter a new name in the “name” field.
Step 3: To rename an existing milestone, update the name in the corresponding milestone field. To update a milestone’s due date, update the corresponding date.
Step 4: To delete a milestone in the Microsoft Teams Milestones app, click the “delete” icon next to the milestone that you want to delete.
Step 5: To add a milestone, click “+ add a milestone”.
Step 6: To add team members, search for and select a user in the “team members” field.
Step 7: To remove an existing team member from the project, click the “delete” icon to the right of the team member’s name.
Step 8: Click the “save” button to confirm the changes that have been made.
Step 9: To delete a project in the Microsoft Teams Milestones app, click the “delete project” button.

How To Use The Microsoft Teams Milestones App Dashboard

The Milestones Teams Milestones dashboard is arguably the best feature of the app. It provides a concise visualization of the status of the project such that stakeholders could easily discern how the project is tracking. The dashboard features two views. The Milestone Status view displays the number of work items per milestone grouped by their respective status. The Milestone Status view also tabulates a percentage complete value which represents the total number of work items completed per milestone divided by the total number of work items per milestone.

To switch to the Team Status view, click on the drop-down arrow to the right of the text “Milestone Status” and click on “Team Status”.

The Team Status view simply displays the number of work items assigned to each team member grouped by status. While it is a nice visualization, there is not much other information easily available in the app.

When working with the Microsoft Teams Milestones app dashboard either in the milestone or team status view, users can use the filter pane to quickly drill drown into specific work items they are looking for. To use the filter pane, click on the “filter button”.

Set your criteria in the filter menu and click “apply”. This will display only those work items that match the criteria.

Does The Microsoft Teams Milestones App Integrate With Microsoft Planner?

This is the million-dollar question that most users ask when they discover the Microsoft Teams Milestones app. Unfortunately, the answer is no, the Milestones app does not integrate directly with Microsoft Planner using the app’s default setup. Given that the Microsoft Teams Milestones app is built on the Microsoft Power Platform (specifically, Power Apps and Dataverse), in theory, the app can be customized to integrate with Planner. This would likely need to be done through the creation of workflows in Microsoft Power Automate that trigger when new records are added in the Milestones app (i.e. either a milestone or work item) and when Planner tasks are updated to ensure changes are synchronized back in the Milestones app. Given the interest in this topic, I will be exploring how to implement this integration so be sure to subscribe to the mailing list below to receive my latest written and video tutorials.

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