New Microsoft Teams features: Now you can connect directly to Project and Roadmap apps
Users of the Microsoft Teams collaboration platform can now use a tab to access the revamped Project app for the web that Microsoft released last year.
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The Project planning app for the web is built on the Microsoft Power Platform for making tools to automate workflows via desktop and mobile for project teams.
Project for the web reached general availability last year, offering improved ways for new members to be added to teams and for users to switch between grids, boards and/or timeline (Gantt) charts to track progress.
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There were also Project on the web integrations with Microsoft Teams, Power BI for creating dashboards, the Power Platform low-code/no-code tools, and Office.
The Project and its companion Roadmap app in Teams allow users to create new projects or roadmaps within Teams. The apps can be added as tabs from the '+' icon at the top of a channel.
"Connecting directly to Project from within Teams has been one of the major requests from Project users, and these apps will make it easy to manage, track, and collaborate on all aspects of a team's project in one place," says Microsoft.
Teams users will gain access to features from Project for the web, including the automated scheduling to set effort, duration, and resources from within Teams. Microsoft has published a guide for using Project and Roadmap as apps within Teams.
The Project apps are the latest in a growing list of apps coming to Teams to help workers organize data in Teams chat, channels and tabs.
Salesforce last week announced its app for Teams to bring CRM and customer data to Teams channels and chats. Microsoft launched the Tasks in Teams before that, which brings together Microsoft's Planner and To-Do apps within Teams.
Roadmap on Teams is for groups running multiple concurrent projects and provides a visual way to connect their projects and show their current status.
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There are two separate levels of access and usability for Project and Roadmap in Teams. All Office 365 users can view Projects and Roadmaps shared within Teams but not modify them. To create and edit Projects and Roadmaps, users need an appropriate Project for the Web license.
Microsoft is also working on notifications in Teams to help users see important Project and Roadmap updates in their team's activity feed.
Other new features Microsoft has delivered this month include the addition of speaker attribution to live captions. Presenters can also now pin an individual video feed for all attendees to see during a Teams meeting.
Finally, meeting organizers and presenters can prevent attendees from unmuting during – a handy feature for those heading up classrooms or press conferences.
The Project and its companion Roadmap app in Teams can be added as tabs from the '+' icon at the top of a channel.