Introduction
On June 14, during our annual professional conference, we officially introduced LEO Gantt.
LEO Gantt is a cloud-based project scheduling engine designed for working with timelines, tasks, dependencies, and assignments inside Microsoft 365.
It is a proprietary product developed by Leo Consulting — the leading project management implementation company in Ukraine, with hundreds of delivered projects, 16 industry conferences, and a nationwide professional community.
Development of LEO Gantt began on February 2, 2024, and its first public release was announced on June 14, 2025, reflecting a focused, strategic development process.
Why We Built Our Own Scheduling Engine
When we started developing LEO PPM in 2022, the choice of a scheduling tool was straightforward.
At that time, Project for the Web (now Planner Premium) was the only fully cloud-native scheduling solution available in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Planner Premium is a reasonable tool for a specific class of projects — short, low-complexity initiatives with limited dependency logic.
However, after hundreds of real implementations, one thing became consistently clear:
Modern cloud schedulers are optimised for lightweight execution, not for controlled delivery.
Microsoft continues to invest in Planner Premium, but its strategic direction is clearly focused on AI-driven user experience, not on expanding classical project management capabilities such as dependency logic, baselines, resource effort tracking, or portfolio-grade predictability.
By 2023, it was evident that waiting for these capabilities to emerge was no longer a viable strategy.
If predictability matters, scheduling cannot remain a compromise.
After thorough market and architectural analysis, we decided to develop our own scheduling engine to meet the specific needs of complex, dependency-heavy projects and ensure predictable delivery.
On February 2, 2024, development of LEO Gantt began.
From Concept to Product
Eighteen months later, on June 14, 2025, at the Strategic Project Conference, we presented a new version of LEO PPM powered by LEO Gantt.
Our goal was clearly defined from the beginning:
- to build a scheduling engine stronger than Planner Premium
- without attempting to replicate Microsoft Project Desktop, which belongs to a different generation and philosophy of tools
LEO Gantt was designed for organisations managing dependency-heavy, long-term projects, emphasising its strategic role in cloud-based control and accountability.
Scheduling is not about visuals. It is about accountability.
Current Capabilities (Version 1.0.0.13)
Technical Boundaries
LEO Gantt is optimised for enterprise-scale projects while maintaining performance and usability:
- Maximum tasks per schedule: 10,000
- Maximum total tasks and phases: 200
- Maximum assigned users per task: up to 23 (UX recommendation)
- Maximum dependencies per task: up to 20 (performance guideline)
Core Functional Capabilities
Full Dependency Logic
LEO Gantt supports all four dependency types, including lags and leads, for all users.
In Planner Premium, this functionality is available only with Plan 3 and Plan 5 licenses.
Dependency logic is the foundation of predictable delivery, showcasing LEO Gantt’s advanced features that ensure project success.
Project Structure Control
Projects can be expanded and collapsed across different levels of the hierarchy, allowing managers to work with both strategic and operational views.
This capability is not available in Planner Premium, regardless of license level.
Critical Path Calculation
LEO Gantt includes critical path analysis as a standard capability.
In Planner Premium, the critical path is available only in higher-tier licenses.
Effort-Based Planning and Progress Tracking
LEO Gantt allows:
- planned effort entry per assigned resource
- actual effort tracking per resource
- automatic calculation of progress based on effort consumption
- optional manual override by the project manager
Planner Premium does not support effort-based planning or progress calculation in any license.
If effort is invisible, control is an illusion.
Import from Microsoft Project via Excel
Projects can be created directly from Excel workbooks, allowing teams to migrate existing plans from Microsoft Project into a controlled scheduling environment.
Planner Premium does not provide this capability.
Custom Fields and Corporate Standards
LEO Gantt allows organisations to:
- rename task columns
- define corporate custom fields
- include them directly in the scheduling view
This enables governance and standardisation without sacrificing flexibility.
Baselines
LEO Gantt supports:
- five named baselines by default
- expandable to 10 or even 20 baselines
- possibility to view baselines in the Gantt chart
Planner Premium supports only one baseline for Planner Plan 3 & 5 licences (no possibility to rename or add to the Gantt chart).
If commitments cannot be fixed, they cannot be measured.
Kanban Boards
LEO Gantt includes Kanban boards for execution-level work — a capability also present in Planner Premium.
Templates
Projects in LEO Gantt can be created from saved project templates.
This capability is not available in Planner Premium.
Workpackages
Projects can be detailed using preconfigured templates, significantly reducing planning time and improving consistency.
This capability is not available in Planner Premium either.
Customer-Driven Evolution
LEO Gantt evolves together with its users.
Customers actively influence the roadmap based on real delivery challenges — something rarely achievable with global SaaS products.
Tools improve fastest when shaped by practitioners, not only by product roadmaps.
Known Gaps and Roadmap Direction
Planner Premium currently includes features that LEO Gantt does not yet provide:
- priorities and labels
- goals
- time-phased planned data
These capabilities are already included in our roadmap.
At the same time, core scheduling features missing from Planner Premium are unlikely to appear there, given its strategic product direction.
What Comes Next
After Microsoft announced the retirement of Project Online, many organisations began searching for alternatives.
While LEO Gantt is not positioned as a complete replacement for Microsoft Project Desktop, it is a strong and realistic alternative for organisations managing:
- IT projects
- R&D projects
- Construction projects
High-Level Roadmap
- Resource tables
- Multiple resource types (labour, materials, generic)
- Cost and availability parameters
- Project and task calendars
- Hard and soft task constraints
- Program and portfolio roadmaps
- Cross-project dependencies
- Advanced UI/UX improvements
- Task-level reporting and timesheets
Our Position
LEO Gantt is designed for organisations that value predictability, accountability, and control.
It is the result of years of consulting practice, not theoretical product design.
Good planning reduces heroism — and increases delivery.