{"id":110987,"date":"2018-11-29T05:17:27","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T13:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-automate\/how-to-manage-a-request-backlog\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T08:06:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:06:01","slug":"how-to-manage-a-request-backlog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-automate\/how-to-manage-a-request-backlog\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginner | Flow of The Week: Create and manage a request backlog with Microsoft Flow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Whats up Flow Friends?!\u00a0<\/p>\n

This weeks post comes from awesome community member Bryant Boyer!\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bryant Boyer (@BryantBoyer<\/a>) is a Product Manager at BrainStorm, Inc. (http:\/\/www.brainstorminc.com<\/a>) and specializes in successful rollout and adoption of Microsoft applications, especially Office 365. His expertise and interests are with Microsoft Excel, Flow, Power BI, Dynamics 365 CRM, citizen developers and no-code solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Introduction\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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What would your day look like if you were entirely in control of where you spent your time? It should be ridiculous to even ask that question, but the reality is that workplaces are trending more agile. With the added emphasis on the ability to be nimble, folks are more likely to lean on one another to reach their goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Here is an example of my own. When I get to work each morning, I write down the three things I want to accomplish, and I dive right in. It isn\u2019t long before an email, a private message or call in Teams, or even a visitor at my desk pulls me out of my deep thinking and sets me on a different path. And once I\u2019ve been pulled into the ether, there is no telling when I\u2019ll find my way back to what I was working on. And at this moment, y\u2019all are nodding your heads–this isn\u2019t uncommon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What\u2019s the best way to stay focused and accomplish what you need to? I don\u2019t want people to stop bringing questions to me. But I wish there was a way to wait until I had time to allow the distractions in. I\u2019ve experimented with pausing my inbox, going on do not disturb in Teams, and a few other strategies, but the only real solution is going to involve a new sort of communication and collaboration contract with my coworkers. Here is one such solution that I\u2019ve found to be successful in filtering requests on a team level and could absolutely be applied on a personal level as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This Flow is going to leverage Microsoft Forms and a connection to Planner. There are also two variations: the first is an integration with Teams for visibility on a broader scale, and the second includes an approval step prior to creating a card in Planner. Let\u2019s dive in!\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Create a Form\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Since this is going to connect Microsoft Forms and Microsoft Planner, you\u2019ll need to have created each of those first. Let\u2019s begin with Microsoft Forms. Navigate to https:\/\/forms.office.com<\/a> and create a New Form.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Forms is pretty intuitive, and it\u2019s up to you exactly how you want to gather information about your requests. Let\u2019s start by taking a look at the Forms settings, which you can find by clicking the ellipses icon on the top right of the navigation bar.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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One huge plus with using Microsoft Forms with your co-workers is that Forms will grab the name and email address of the person submitting a response (that is if the \u201cRecord name\u201d box is checked). That means that you won\u2019t have to ask any questions related to who is submitting the request.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The second important setting to note here: keep the \u201cOne response per person\u201d box unchecked so that your coworkers can submit more than one response.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In terms of questions for the form itself, I always include something about priority, and perhaps a category to easily bucket requests. Check out the \u201cEisenhower Box\u201d for a good strategy to prioritize tasks. Also, think with the end in mind\u2014this will eventually be a Planner card, so ask for what you would need to fill out a card (title, description, etc.).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Create a Plan\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Alright, now that we\u2019ve got our Form, let\u2019s move on to Planner. Navigate to https:\/\/tasks.office.com<\/a> and select New plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Give it a title like \u201cBryant\u2019s Prioritized Tasks,\u201d select the privacy, and click Create Plan. I would recommend creating your plan as \u201cPrivate\u201d as you and those you specifically add to the plan should be the only ones prioritizing your tasks. Now, for your buckets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tasks in Planner are in a card format, and they are meant to be moved from bucket to bucket depending on their status, progress, etc\u2026 The best bucket format I\u2019ve found is to mirror agile frameworks and create an \u201cNot Prioritized\u201d bucket, a \u201cBacklog\u201d bucket, a \u201cWorking On\u201d bucket, and a \u201cComplete\u201d bucket. I\u2019ve also experimented with other buckets, like \u201cCurrent 6 Tasks,\u201d \u201cNext 10 Tasks,\u201d and \u201cOn Someone Else\u2019s Plate\u201d to give me a better sense of how new requests will affect my current plans, but do whatever works best for you.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Just for kicks, click one of the plus signs to add a Task. Here you see that you can add the task name, a due date, and an assigned person. However, once you create the task you\u2019ll see that you can also add the Label (colored tabs to the right of the card), Bucket, Progress, Start date, Description, Checklist, Attachments, and Comments (note: you cannot currently add checklist items or comments to Planner cards via Microsoft Flow). Does this change what you might ask in your Form? I think asking for a due date makes sense as we can add that to the card here, so I went back and added it. Go back and tweak your questions on the Form if you\u2019d like.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Create Your Flow\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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On to Flow! Go to https:\/\/flow.microsoft.com<\/a> and click My Flows > New > Create from blank.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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In the blank flow, add the Forms trigger When a new response is submitted. In the \u201cForm Id\u201d field, find your Form from the dropdown. Note: If your Form doesn\u2019t appear in the dropdown then select Custom and find the Form Id in your Form URL as the string of characters after the \u201cFormId=\u201d. Enter that here.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Next, add a new Forms action to Get response details. Again, fill in the Form Id as you did above. When you click in the \u201cResponse Id\u201d field, the Dynamic content box should pop open. If not, click Add dynamic content.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Wait, there\u2019s no content to insert? Click See more to display more items and click List of response notifications Response Id.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s where Flow does some lifting for you. You\u2019ll notice that an \u201cApply to each\u201d container has been created for you. Assume that two Forms responses are submitted simultaneously. Which response should the action be taken for? In this way, you\u2019ll perform the action on all responses for the Flow check period.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Next, within the container and directly below the \u201cGet response details\u201d action you just placed, click Add an action. Now, we need to get details about the user that submitted the Form response. So, navigate the Office 365 actions and click Get user profile (V2). For the \u201cUser\u201d value add the \u201cResponders\u2019 Email\u201d as a dynamic value. This will allow us to get the user\u2019s department name, display name, and more. It\u2019s just cleaner to use the responder\u2019s name rather than their email. And, if you choose to send any emails as a part of this flow then you can address them by name.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s where we are going to connect to Microsoft Planner. Search for and click Create a task to add it to your flow.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Select the plan from the \u201cPlan Id\u201d dropdown, or select Custom value and get the custom plan id from the Planner URL (just like above with the \u201cForm Id\u201d). For the task \u201cTitle,\u201d I\u2019m adding the question where I asked the user to give a summary of their request. You could also just write \u201cTask submitted by \u201c and include the responders\u2019 name from Office 365 dynamic content. Up to you.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For the Bucket Id, pick Not Prioritized. This is where the task will be created. Leave the \u201cStart Date Time\u201d field blank, because we don\u2019t know when we\u2019ll start this task. In the \u201cDue Date Time\u201d field, I\u2019m going to add the dynamic answer to the question \u201cWhat is the due date (if any)?\u201d. Just be sure that any question you are pulling into this section is formatted to be a date question in Microsoft Forms\u2014text answers won\u2019t work.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Finally, I put my own email address in the \u201cAssigned User Id\u201d field. At this point, your flow should look like this:\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Now hang on, there\u2019s a lot more information on the Planner card that the fields above. How do we add a description? Add a new action within the container and select the Update task details Planner action. In the \u201cTask Id\u201d field insert the Id from the \u201cCreate a task\u201d section of the dynamic content. For the \u201cDescription\u201d field, add the question that best applies from the \u201cGet response details\u201d section in dynamic content. In my case, that\u2019s \u201cWhat is your request?\u201d. But there\u2019s probably more you want to put in the description of the card, right? Well, it\u2019s easy to add more text and fields into the \u201cDescription\u201d field. Just hit return and keep on typing. Insert dynamic content where it makes sense. Here\u2019s what I\u2019m ending up with:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Notice here that you can also add references to your Planner task card. Imagine asking for a valid URL in Forms and then inserting that here as a reference. That could be cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Now you\u2019re good, right? Wrong. I\u2019ll submit a test action to illustrate something.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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It failed?? Clicking into the failure, it looks like the \u201cUpdate task details\u201d step couldn\u2019t find the task I had created in the previous step. Basically, here\u2019s what happens: you tell Planner to create a task, and then you ask to update the task before it actually gets created. To avoid the issue, insert a \u201cDelay\u201d action between the two. 5 seconds should be enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Now, I don\u2019t need to submit a new response. Instead, I\u2019ll click Test in the upper right corner of the window and resubmit the data from my failed test.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Success! Now I\u2019ll go to Planner and check out my new Planner task.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s some variations and pro tips for customizing this to meet your needs:\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    \n
  • \n

    If you want to update the \u201cProgress\u201d of a task, use the \u201cUpdate a task\u201d action in addition to the \u201cUpdate task details\u201d action\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    \n
    \n
      \n
    • \n

      Add an added notification if the task has a high urgency or is due today or tomorrow\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      Create an Outlook task for requests with high urgency to surface it more quickly\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      Add an approval step for your manager to approve all requests for your time or for you to approve requests\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      Add an automated email a few minutes after the submission to send back to the user thanking them for the submission and that you\u2019ll be in touch with them soon about it\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      If this is for a team, consider posting the submission in a Teams channel as well\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      There is a limitation to using Planner: there are no Flow actions for when a task moves between buckets. What that means is that you\u2019ll need to manually email users when you begin working on or complete the task they requested. Now, you could easily do this with a SharePoint list, so look into managing your tasks from a SharePoint list if that\u2019s a must for you.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      Now, go out there and have a more focused work day thanks to Microsoft Flow!\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      You start your day with an idea of what you want to accomplish. It might be deals closed, requests fulfilled or progress on a project. But if you\u2019re anything like me, you\u2019re getting a steady stream of requests that threaten to derail your progress and put your goals at risk. You and your team need focus, but how can you respect and fulfill these requests while staying focused on providing the most value? <\/p>\n

      Enter Microsoft Flow, which is capable of creating a request engine to take in the most relevant information using Microsoft Forms and then adding cards to a Planner backlog. <\/p>\n

      Since there isn\u2019t a one-size solution for everyone, there are a few different variations to try out! Let me show you how to clear away the disruptive request cycle and stay focused on the most important things using Microsoft Flow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":348,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ms_queue_id":[],"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","_alt_title":"","ms-ems-related-posts":[],"footnotes":""},"audience":[3378],"content-type":[27],"job-role":[],"product":[3474],"property":[],"topic":[],"coauthors":[2899],"class_list":["post-110987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","audience-it-professional","content-type-customer-stories","product-power-automate"],"yoast_head":"\nBeginner | Flow of The Week: Create and manage a request backlog with Microsoft Flow - Microsoft Power Platform Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/2018\/11\/29\/how-to-manage-a-request-backlog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beginner | Flow of The Week: Create and manage a request backlog with Microsoft Flow - Microsoft Power Platform Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You start your day with an idea of what you want to accomplish. 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