Generate a Weekly Report of Incomplete Tasks on Planner

Introduction

Microsoft Planner is a powerful tool for managing collaborative tasks in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. However, tracking incomplete tasks can become a challenge for system administrators and advanced users. This article explains in detail how to automate the generation and sending of a weekly email detailing incomplete tasks in Planner.

Analysis of Incomplete Tasks

The objective of this process is to centralize information on incomplete tasks for each team member. Here are the fundamental steps:

• Identify a security group containing the targeted members.
• Find all plans associated with Microsoft 365 Groups to which each member belongs.
• Retrieve open (non-completed) tasks in these plans.
• Send a personalized email to each user with a summary of open tasks, included as a direct link to each task.

Using the Microsoft Graph API with PowerShell

In this context, we use the Planner module from Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. Here are the key cmdlets:

• Get-MgGroupPlannerPlan: Get plans associated with a Microsoft 365 group.
• Get-MgPlannerPlanTask: Retrieve tasks from a specific plan.
• Get-MgPlannerPlanBucket: Get the subdivisions (buckets) of a plan.

Example Script to Retrieve Incomplete Tasks

1[array]$Tasks = Get-MgPlannerPlanTask -PlannerPlanId $Plan.Id -All -PageSize 500 -Property Id, Title, CompletedDateTime, StartDateTime, DueDateTime, BucketId, Assignments -ErrorAction Stop
2 
3$IncompleteTasks = $Tasks | Where-Object { $null -eq $_.CompletedDateTime }

Azure Automation Configuration

Once the script is tested in interactive mode, it must be integrated into an Azure Automation runbook. Here are the main steps:

Automated Report Delivery via Email

The script generates a summary of incomplete tasks in email form and includes:

• Task title.
• Start date and due date.
• Hyperlink to the task in the Planner application.

Code Excerpt: Sending an Email

1Send-MailMessage -To $UserEmail -Subject "Weekly Report: Incomplete Tasks" -Body $EmailBody -SmtpServer "smtp.office365.com" -Credential $SMTPAuth

Limitations of the Graph API for Planner

Although the Graph API is a robust interface, certain limitations remain:

• Lack of search or sorting of tasks within plans.
• No method to list plans where a user has assigned tasks. This operation requires navigation through Microsoft 365 groups.

Conclusion

Automating the management of incomplete tasks in Planner is a process that combines PowerShell and the capabilities of Azure Automation. Despite the challenges posed by API limitations, this approach improves team productivity while ensuring structured tracking.

As a system administrator or cloud engineer, you can adapt this script to other business scenarios by leveraging the capabilities of Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK and Azure Automation.